A World Ready to Learn: Prioritizing Quality Early Childhood Education

"These early years [ages 3-6] provide a critical window of opportunity for girls and boys to build the foundations of learning and develop skills that can help them succeed in school and over the course of their lives."

This report from the UNICEF offers evidence that early childhood education (preschool) gives children the foundations for success in school. It includes data-driven recommendations for building political will to invest in pre-primary education through new partnerships. It is also a progress report on: Ethiopia, the Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Mongolia, and Nepal on the Sustainable Development Goals(SDG) 4.2,  access to quality early childhood development, care and pre-primary education.

In more detail, chapters include the following:

• "Chapter 1 outlines the reasons why quality pre-primary education opportunities should be universal. Investments in early childhood education bring returns that far exceed their initial costs, yielding multiple benefits for children, education systems and societies at large..." having greatest impact in low- and lower-middle-income countries and for the most disadvantaged children.
• "Chapter 2 presents the case for a ‘progressive universalist’ approach to the expansion of pre-primary education..." highlighting challenges in equity and access, as well as pathways to overcome them and emphasising political leadership to make pre-primary education a priority within education sector policies and plans as vital.
• "Chapter 3 addresses the question: How can pre-primary education systems progressively reach all children and improve quality at the same time?..." by defining ‘quality’ and recognising that deliver of quality at scale depends upon "pre-primary teachers as the driving force in achieving effective pre-primary programmes." It includes discussion of trade-offs facing governments in allocating resources.
• "Chapter 4 unpacks the critical issue of securing appropriate funding for pre-primary education..." because "this subsector is severely underfunded, particularly in low- and lower-middle-income countries." It shows how "major increases in financing are achievable by coordinating and leveraging available financing, and strengthening the governance and accountability of the pre-primary subsector." Six steps are suggested on page 125.
• "In the concluding section, the report presents an agenda for action by governments, donors and partners – and offers concrete recommendations for accelerating progress and making quality universal pre-primary education a reality for every child."

The eight steps in the Call to Action include:

1. "Raise the profile of pre-primary education within education sector plans and policies, and urgently accelerate efforts to address access gaps.
2. Put in place policies that maintain a universal commitment and prioritize the poorest and hardest-to-reach children at the start of the road to universality, not at the end.
3. In countries not on track to achieve the universal target, prioritize the implementation of a single year of free pre-primary education, with an aim to expand this provision to more years as the capacity of the pre-primary system grows.
4. Invest in quality as the system grows – not after –striking a balance between expanding access and maintaining quality so that pre-primary education results in real benefits for all children.
5. Strengthen the governance and implementation capacity of the pre-primary system across all levels of government.
6. Significantly increase financing for pre-primary education and ensure an adequate level of public and international resources for this subsector.
7. Establish a common vision for the subsector among governments, donors and partners and shape priorities in a complementary manner to make funding and technical assistance available where and when it is most needed.
8. Move decisively, now, to achieve universal pre-primary education by 2030."