ECCE and Attention to Transition – the Route to Equality Is Everybody Ready?

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