Learning begins before a child walks through the classroom door. Early childhood care and education (ECCE) supports children’s survival and cognitive, social, physical and emotional development. ECCE guarantees children’s rights, opens the way for the Education for All (EFA) goals and contributes to reducing poverty. Why, then, is it so low on the education agenda?

UNESCO’s 2007 Global Monitoring Report, ‘Strong foundations: early childhood care and education’, calls upon countries to get serious about the first of the six EFA goals: expanding and improving ECCE, especially for the most vulnerable and disadvantaged children.

Good-quality early childhood care and education – including immunisation, parenting education, kindergartens and nurseries – provide health, nutrition, hygiene, stimulation and social interaction that support children’s development and learning. Participation of young children in such programmes equips them to contribute to building more equitable societies.

Early childhood is a time of remarkable brain development that lays the foundation for later learning. Undernutrition, deprivation of care and poor treatment are damaging to young children, with repercussions felt into adulthood. Stunted children (those short for their age) are less likely to enrol in school and more likely to enrol later and to drop out. It is far more challenging to compensate for educational and social disadvantage among older children and adults than it is to provide support in early childhood.

Affordable, reliable child care provides essential support for working parents, particularly mothers. Urbanisation and resulting changes to household structures have reduced the role of extended family members as carers. Growing numbers of working mothers with young children have increased the demand for non-parental child care. Pressures to increase competitiveness in a knowledge-based world economy increase the importance of improving children’s ‘school readiness’.

ECCE programmes can also:

• make primary education systems more efficient by reducing dropout and repetition rates and the need to provide special education
• increase the proportion of girls who begin school at the appropriate age and complete primary school
• provide an opportunity to reduce stereotypes of traditional gender roles and to encourage gender equality when young children are developing understanding of identity, tolerance and values
• enable the older sisters of young children to be relieved of care responsibilities – a common barrier to girls’ enrolment in primary education.

ECCE is a human right, recognised in the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). The CRC’s monitoring committee put ECCE on its agenda in 2005. It is high time the international community invested in the future of the 738 million children under the age of five – 11 percent of the world’s population. Policymakers should:

• recognise the role of ECCE within broader anti-poverty strategies and links to health and nutrition
• appreciate that investment in ECCE yields high economic returns
• acknowledge the evidence showing the benefits of early childhood programmes for vulnerable and disadvantaged children
• ensure that approaches to ECCE reflect local traditions, cultures and family structures
• provide pre-service training and improve pay for ECCE staff.

Source(s):
‘Learning Begins at Birth’, chapter one in ‘Strong Foundations: Early Childhood Care and Education. Education for All Global Monitoring Report 2007’, UNESCO Publishing, October 2006 (PDF) Full document.
‘The Compelling Case for ECCE’, chapter five in ‘Strong Foundations: Early Childhood Care and Education. Education for All Global Monitoring Report 2007’, UNESCO Publishing, October 2006 (PDF) Full document.
‘Strong Foundations: Early Childhood Care and Education. Education for All Global Monitoring Report 2007’, UNESCO Publishing, October 2006 (PDF) Full document.

Funded by: Several bilateral donors and UNESCO

id21 Research Highlight: 28 November 2006

Further Information:
Nicholas Burnett, Director
EFA Global Monitoring Report Team
UNESCO
7, place de Fontenoy
75352 Paris 07 SP, France

Tel: +33 1 45 68 21 28
Fax: +33 1 45 68 56 27
Contact the contributor: efareport@unesco.org

EFA Monitoring Report Team, UNESCO

Other related links:
'Assessing early childhood care and education'

'Building policy support for early childhood care and education'

'Early childhood development programmes for the developing world'

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