ECCE and Attention to Transition– the Route to Equality
Is Everybody Ready?
Caroline Arnold Aga Khan Foundation
South Asian Regional ConferenceAugust 27 – 29, 2012
Early Childhood Care and Education Policies and Practices: Towards 2015 and Beyond
ECD: Significant and sustained benefits
Key to addressing deep-rooted patterns of discrimination and
exclusion
Most dramatic gains for disadvantaged
Studies – India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Turkey,Egypt, Jamaica,
Guinea, South Africa, US, UK, Peru
Nepal
ECD 84%Non-ECD 42%
Double
Results most dramatic for dalit children and girls
Promotion from Grade 1 to 2
Initial Enrollment into Grade 1
ECD > 95%
All children 75% (district)
India
National level ICDS evaluation (25 states)
ECD 89%No ECD 68%
Chaturvedi Study
No impact on drop-out for high caste children but 46% reduction for lowest castes
Retention rate in primary
Gender Equity
• Brazil
Girls from low-income families who attend preschool
2 X as likely to reach Grade 5
3 X as likely to reach Grade 8
• Nepal: Boy/ Girl ratios
Grade 1: ECCE Non-ECCE 50/50 61/39
Grade 2: ECCE Non-ECCE 54/46 66/34
English Urdu Math0%
50%
100%
65% 68%
80%
50%55%
68%
Project
Non-Project
Key Findings
Learning Achievement Test scores, Class 1
Pakistan RCC(Transition Project)
Benefits most pronounced for girls and government schools serving the most disadvantaged
05-134
GDP & Grade 3 Language Scores
Country
Chile
Mexico
Colombia
Brazil
Cuba
GDP $
9.930
6.769
6.347
5.928
3.100
Language Score
351
247
242
240
236UNESCO 1998
BUT
Early Childhood Care and Education AND
Early Primary
iswhen
Education Systems fail children (especially marginalized children)
the worst
Lack of ECCE Access
• Sub- Saharan Africa : 86% - NO access
• South & West Asia : 58% - NO access
For the vast majority of disadvantaged children transition is still from home to school
Failureto
provide adequate financial resources(national governments and international donors)
Disparities within countries
• Globally - failure to reach most disadvantaged (social, economic, geography, parental ed.) EFA Goal 1
• Syria, Mongolia, Kyrgyzstan:
Children from wealthiest 20% > 5 X as likely to attend pre-school as those from poorest 20%
• BangladeshWealthiest 20% >2X as to have learning opportunities at
home
Have we done enough to make sure policy-makers understand the connection between
EFA’s 1st goal and the attainment of other EFA goals and MDGs?
• Access and Completion of basic education (goal 2)
• Gender Equity (goal 5)
• Quality (goal 6)
Attention Increasing – but slowly
• More data, better analysis
• Evidence of benefits of ECCE
• Devastating consequences of combination of i)lack of supports for early childhood ii)lack of attention to early primary
Children not ready for Schools and
Schools not ready for Children
Limited Progress towards EFA goals
• Massive increases in initial enrolments BUT– Inadequate increases in completion in too
many places – Poor learning achievement (ASER)
Where are Efforts breaking down?
Right at the beginning
SCHOOLThe Crisis in Grade 1 Grade 1 DROP-OUT*
Pakistan 16% India 15% (>3 X Grade 4 drop-out)
Grade 1 REPETITION Nepal 30% Bihar,India 16% (MIS,SSA)
* Source: EFA GMR /11
Even if stay in school….millions become set in persistent patterns of under-achievement Early primary years - Key to systemic failures in education
COSTLY IN BOTH HUMAN AND FINANCIAL TERMS
3 Questions and Challenges:
1) Why do ECCE professionals and policy-makers ignore the 6-8 year-olds when ECCE is defined as covering 0-8?
2) Why are large scale education reform efforts not giving focused attention to early primary?
3) How can we conceptualize and implement work so that ECCE and early primary part of a whole?
Increase resources for and ensure access to ECCE programmes
– ECCE for all and ESPECIALLY the marginalized.
Target– Flexible approaches that enable reach to remote
areas and excluded groups– Minimum targets for ECCE budgets (well-
balanced systems invest about 10% of education budget in ECCE)
– Quality– Links between ECD and primary
Increase resources for early primary as critical to education reform addressing the equity and
learning crisis
– Invest the best in early primary (opposite of present)
• Experienced, capable teachers in lower primary; improved knowledge, skills and status
– Focused attention to lower primary in training– Welcoming, appreciative, inclusive, safe, healthy
environment for children and parents – Focus on LEARNING – esp. language & literacy –
systematic teaching of reading – Mother tongue - transition into additional language/s– Learning materials in children’s hands
GENERATE AND USE EVIDENCE TO MOBILIZE POLITICAL AND POPULAR SUPPORT
• Data demonstrating solid results from ECD and early primary work vital – Building commitment – Influencing Policy – Mobilizing Resources
• Decision-makers need local evidence – Impact on education indicators– Fit with priorities and commitments of target group
GENERATE AND USE LOCAL EVIDENCE
Afghan Badakshan:
2005: half as many girls in Grd.6 as in Grd.1ECCE & Focussed attention to early primary introduced 2011: 17% fewer girls in Grd.6 as in Grd.1
Attention to ECCE
includingearly primary
Key to
Countering discrimination and Ensuring a good start
forALL CHILDREN
Thank you
Aga Khan Development Network www.akdn.org