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World
Education Forum
Dakar, Senegal 26-28 April 2000 |
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| Expanding
access to early childhood care and development programmes |
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Issues
Paper
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| Strategy
Session I.5 |
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Original
: English
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| "Learning
begins at birth. This calls for early childhood care and initial
education. These can be provided through arrangements involving
families, communities or institutional programmes, as appropriate."
(article 5, World Declaration on Education for All) |
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| A. Introduction
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 Early
childhood care and development (ECCD) emerged at Jomtien as
an extension of basic education, in contrast to the view that
education begins with entrance into primary school. The Framework
for Action agreed at the Jomtien Conference set a number of
targets to be considered by countries when drawing up their
education plans for the 1990s, including one for ECCD: "Expansion
of early childhood care and development activities, including
family and community interventions, especially for poor, disadvantaged
and disabled children." Bob Myers' recent review suggests that
modest gains have been made, but also that any advances need
to be kept in context. |
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| This
Strategy Session will focus on a few key issues cutting across
a range of programmes and country contexts: (i) the importance
of families and communities, (ii) the need to attend to gender
concerns and issues, and (iii) the role of different types of
partnerships in ECCD programmes at all levels. The Session should
encourage discussion and sharing of experience and ideas, looking
ahead in a strategic manner so that the recognition that "learning
begins at birth" becomes more than rhetoric. |
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B.
Review of some key advances, changes and issues
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1. The well-being of children: Key advances have been made in
reducing infant and child mortality, the level of malnutrition
has declined in some countries, and the consumption of micro-nutrients
has improved. However, malnutrition continues at high levels
in many countries, particularly in rural areas. There is also
evidence that feeding programmes, on their own, may not be particularly
effective in decreasing malnutrition. |
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Critical issues: In reviewing country reports, Myers noted that
very few countries provide measures for the psycho-social well-being
of young children or for their learning during their early years.
Moreover, reported improvements were inferred from changes in
subsequent school performance and retention rates, which are
inadequate and indirect measures of a child's general development
or psycho-social well-being. |
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2. ECCD enrolments: In many countries, enrolments tended to
increase since 1990, but in others enrolments decreased, particularly
in the countries of the former Soviet Union and in countries
of Eastern Europe. Attention continues to be concentrated
on "pre-schooling", usually for children of age 4 to 6 and
particularly for children about to enter primary school.
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Urban children are more likely than are rural children to be
enrolled in some sort of ECCD programme; children from families
that are better off are more likely to be enrolled than are
children from families with small incomes. |
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Critical issues: Very few children under age four in the Majority
World are attending organised ECCD programmes. In addition,
the relative roles of the State, the private sector, social
organizations and local communities in providing and supporting
ECCD services vary widely among countries. |
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3. Conceptual shifts and changes in the knowledge base and its
dissemination. There have been significant advances in our understanding
of how the brain develops and functions, and there is a growing
body of knowledge coming from research studies and programme
evaluations showing long-term benefits of early intervention
programmes for children at risk. |
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Critical issue: New research studies being carried out on
"resilience", conditions under which programmes can have a
negative affect on child development, and child-rearing practices
and patterns are likely to enhance our understanding of young
children and their families.
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4. Planning, programming and implementing ECCD. A number of
important conceptual shifts can be seen. Early childhood programming
is increasingly viewed within a broader framework of poverty
alleviation and transition to democracy. In addition, more attention
is being given to "holistic" development, cutting across sectoral
lines with "prevention of" rather than "compensating for" problems
being the goal. Finally, thinking has been shifting from a "needs"
perspective -- often associated with "targeted" interventions--
to a broader "rights" perspective, and from a "preschooling"
perspective to a more holistic ECCD perspective. The Convention
on the Rights of the Child and, to a lesser extent, the conceptual
frame provided at Jomtien have been critical forces shaping
these changes. |
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Critical issues: There is an ongoing change in how governments
see their role in relation to other actors (i.e. parents, communities,
civil society groups such as NGOs and religious organisations,
and the private sector) in respect to ECCD programmes. One tendency
has been to shift some of the burden of providing services from
government responsibility (which has often been exclusive) to
"partnerships" or sometimes to the marketplace through privatisation.
This moving mix of providers can have a positive impact on the
effectiveness and relevance of ECCD programmes. But, it can
also have a negative impact in terms of access and sustainability.
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To facilitate more diversity in the types of ECCD offered,
as well as in the partners involved, the following actions
could be helpful:
Broadening the range of options with a view to complementarity,
including programmes directed to the family and community,
as well as to the child, and encouraging inter-sectoral
collaboration and co-ordination;
Constructing culturally relevant programmes with local communities,
rather than imposing ECCD practices from the centre.
Accepting non-formal approaches, but without regarding them
as "second best";
Working with non-governmental organisations;
Decentralising programme and administrative responsibilities,
with attention to building local capacity.
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| Two
important, related issues: |
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(i) Lack of attention to particular populations. In all
countries there are "disadvantaged" populations and special
groups that need to be given greater attention, e.g. low-income
families, rural dwellers, persons affected by HIV/AIDS,
pregnant and lactating mothers, working mothers, etc.
(ii) Poor quality. There is a pressing need to improve the
training (both pre-service and in-service) and supervision
of ECCD personnel at all levels, in line with the diversity
of ECCD approaches. Reformulating training curricula to
take into account local definitions of what constitutes
"best practices" is a continuing priority. In addition,
further attention is needed to reduce the ratio of children
(and families) per ECCD worker and to devise better means
to monitor and evaluate programmes and children's progress.
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5. Changes in policies and in legislative frameworks for programming
ECCD. Myers notes specific changes in laws, the development
of policies and the explicit inclusion of ECCD in national plans
as advances in the field of ECCD. However, in too many countries
there is still a serious lack of good and comprehensive laws
and policies, particularly for children under age three. Moreover,
some broader government policies (e.g. economic adjustment policies)
can affect ECCD indirectly and are often linked to international
agency policies that are not sensitive to ECCD concerns. |
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Critical Issues: Weak political will and inadequate policy and
legal frameworks for ECCD are still characteristic of many countries.
There is a need, therefore, to continue to convince politicians,
policy makers, planners, and education officials at all levels
of the importance of ECCD. Local ECCD providers and their international
partners need to develop better strategies for communicating,
lobbying and advocating. This will require a better information
base, with improved indicators, statistics, monitoring systems,
studies and evaluations. More analytical studies of existing
policies and practices - across sectors - affecting children
are needed, with a view to establishing realistic norms and
standards for private as well as public ECCD programmes. Such
norms must avoid being too rigid or unworkable: they need to
assure positive attention to children. The Convention on the
Rights of the Child offers important principles related to the
best interests of the child, non-discrimination and participation
for all. |
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6. The availability of resources. The overall level of international
financing available for ECCD has increased a great deal since1990.
Still, there are questions about the style of funding organisations
and about national capacities to use available international
funds well. With respect to national budgets, Myers notes that,
in general, the field is under-funded, that public financial
support is low and unstable, and that the lack of resources
is an important problem for ECCD providers. Similarly, despite
advances in the professional training of ECCD personnel in many
countries, there is a strong feeling among interested observers
that adequate human resources are lacking and that more and
better training is needed at all levels, but particularly at
local levels. |
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Critical Issues: There is a lack of, or poor use of, financial
resources, with ECCD programmes generally receiving a smaller
portion of government budgets, relative to the percentage of
young children in the population. How can public funding for
ECCD be increased and made more stable? How can the capacity
of states and municipalities be strengthened to obtain resources
for ECCD? What are the more promising alternative sources of
funding (e.g. debt swaps, philanthropic contributions, and private
sector involvement) ? How can central funding be made more accessible
to local ECCD providers so as to respond better to local demand?
What are the more cost-effective approaches to ECCD, including
community-based non-formal approaches, that have been tested
in different contexts? |
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| C. Conclusion: |
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It is inappropriate to set general priorities for action in
all situations. There is no single formula for ECCD for all
locations, countries and groups. Nonetheless, the following
possible guidelines may serve as a starting point for discussion: |
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Take a holistic view of the child and of the learning and
development process, adopting cross-sectoral policies. Begin
with pre-natal attention.
Concentrate on the well-being of children and not on the
size of particular programmes or on building bureaucracies.
Build child-focussed partnerships.
Include the excluded. Focus on equity.
Be family-focused and community-based, fostering participation.
Seek cultural relevance, determined by those involved, and
accommodation, beginning where people are, building on inherent
strengths.
Be open to diversity and to complementary approaches. Seek
quality.
Seek cost-effectiveness, broadly defined.
Incorporate monitoring and evaluation into programmes from
the outset.
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Finally, to end with a statement from Myers' review: "For many
international organisations, the changes suggested above constitute
a huge challenge that goes to the heart of how organisations
function. In a meeting where commitment to change by national
governments is being sought, a parallel commitment might be
asked of international organisations that goes well beyond a
resource commitment and includes re-examination of values and
the ethics of intervention styles and modes of operation". |
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