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III.
Tendencies: The Changing Status of Children and of ECCD Enrolments
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From a reading of country reports prepared for the EFA Year
2000 Assessment and from the survey of knowledgeable people,
many criteria emerged that might be applied to defining "advances"
in the ECCD field during the 1990s. Although, a priori, one
might expect the main standard for improvement to be set in
terms of the well-being (or development level or learning abilities)
of children, most the of advances described refer to changes
in programme coverage or to conditions that set the stage for
increases in the availability and quality of ECCD programmes
or to actual changes in programming that, eventually, should
bring improvements in the well-being of children. In this section
changes in children and in enrolments will be examined; changes
in conditions affecting programming and in programmes will be
taken up in the next section. |
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| A. Changes
in the Development and Learning of Children |
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Health and Nutritional Status. In many countries, important
improvements have occurred in the health status and the nutritional
state of children. Recognising the importance of good health
and nutrition for learning, some country reports made reference
to these improvements. Many, however, concentrated only on educational
improvements, leaving health and nutrition aside. |
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Over the last ten years, major advances have been made world-wide
in reducing infant and child mortality (see statistics provided
yearly by UNICEF in the State of the World's Children). The
effect of immunisation programmes on infant mortality has been
widely documented and the general tendency is clear. |
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The same clarity and general advance is not as evident for nutritional
status and for the results of feeding components offered as
a part of ECCD programmes. Relatively high levels of under nourishment
and of vitamin deficiencies continue in many parts of Asia,
Africa and Latin America. Moreover, feeding programmes have
not always lived up to expectation. For instance, two relatively
recent evaluations carried out in Latin America found that there
was little or no improvement in the nutritional status of participants
in ECCD programmes despite a relatively high cost of feeding
children in the programmes (Ortíz, et. al., 1992, Colombia;
and Coa, 1996, Bolivia). The nutritional status of rural children
in Mexico has not changed in more than 20 years (COMEXANI 1998).
These results are logical if one considers that feeding programmes
do not necessarily change basic feeding habits at home, that
they often do not provide food on weekends, that parents may
reduce food provided to children at home because they are getting
food (presumably supplementary) elsewhere, and that diarrhoea
linked to poor sanitary conditions continues to offset potential
gains due to food supplementation. On the other hand, micro-nutrient
supplementation programmes seem to have had important positive
effects. And, intensive nutritional programmes in Argentina
and Chile seem to have had good results in reducing malnutrition.
Taken together, these results suggest that broad approaches
need to be promoted if health and nutrition components of ECCD
programmes are to be effective in improving the well-being of
young children; simple supplementary feeding programmes are
not sufficient. |
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Although not present in papers from countries outside Africa,
it is important to note the dramatic setback in general well-being
related to the HIV/AIDS pandemic, particularly for Africa. For
instance, it is reported that Malawi, with a total population
of about 11 million people, can expect to have 850,000 cases
of children with HIV/AIDS in the year 2000 (Republic of Malawi,
1998). |
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Psycho-social Development and Learning. Unfortunately, very
few countries provide us with measures of the psycho-social
well-being of young children or of their advances in learning
during their early years. It is impossible, therefore, to judge
advances in this area for national populations or to link advances
to the many programme initiatives that have been undertaken.
There are, however, exceptions at the level of particular pro-grammes
for which indicators have been created and evaluations carried
out. Unfortunate-ly, such information rarely appears in the
country reports. Improvements are occasionally inferred from
changes in subsequent school performance and retention (see
for instance the Vietnam country evaluation), but these are
at best indirect measures of a child's general development or
psycho-social well-being. Various reviews of the literature
suggest that there are indeed long-term effects (e.g., Myers,
1995; Karoly 1998; Barnett and Boocock, 1998; Kaul, 1999). These
reviews bring together results of specific studies of specific
programmes and do not report results of systematic monitoring
of national changes in children's development and learning during
the early years. This remains a major challenge to which we
will return in the concluding section. |
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Looking at specific studies and at the few cases where there
has been some agreement on an indicator of psycho-social development
and consistent measurement has occurred over time (Chile,
for instance), we find that:
1. Programmes
of reasonable quality do have important positive effects
on early development, often with longer term affects.
2. The
effects can favour rural children who are at a social disadvantage.
3. An
important improvement in the nutritional status of children
does not automatically bring about a hoped-for improvement
in various dimensions of psycho-social development.
4. Language
development seems to be an area in where there is a consistent
lag in development related to socio-economic conditions
as well as to mother tongue differences.
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| Changes
in enrolment |
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The two indicators that were suggested by the EFA Forum for
use in the country reports presenting results of the Year 2000
Assessment are both quantitative indicators of access or enrolment.
These are: a) the percentage of the age group enrolled, and
b) the percentage of new entrants to primary school who have
had some early education. We will concentrate the analysis on
the first indicator, the gross enrolment ratio (GER) because
this information was available in a wider range of countries.
Information about GERs extracted from the country reports available
to the author are presented in Table 1, organised by region.
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Cautions: Before looking at what the figures in Table 1 tell
us, several cautions are in order: |
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First, Direct comparisons of enrolment levels and percentages
among countries should not be made because there are significant
differences in:
the
definition of the age group that is considered as part of
ECCD and for whom data is presented;
the
baseline year and the year for which the latest enrolment
data are presented;
the
definition of what constitutes an early childhood program
.
the
days and hours that programs are in session differ widely
from country to country .
the
degree to which centres providing early childhood attention
are allowed to operate outside the official system, in an
irregular manner, and therefore outside the official statistics,
creating an underestimate of enrolment.
the
reliability of the figures.
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(In spite of the above differences, it is possible to identify
some trends and some obvious differences across regions and
countries, taking into account at least the first two of the
differences mentioned above.)
Second, when looking at increases in enrolment it is important
to take into account the baseline from which the increases
are being made.
Third, in a significant number of country reports, the
requested data were not presented, sometimes because the enrolment
statistics were lacking or because census or other population
data for the relevant age group was lacking. The number of
new entrants with early education was not presented for many
countries because this information is not normally collected.
This led to some innovative ways of estimating the percentage.
Fourth, and often overlooked: enrolment data tend to be
collected at the outset of each year and are based on registrations
rather than actual participation in a program. Such information
does not take into account cases of children who never arrive
even though they are registered nor changes that occur during
the year, including cases of children who decide not to continue
after a few days or weeks. The stability of the enrolment
of children in programmes varies from country to country.
Fifth, gross enrolment ratios (GER) are used. This does
not make much of a difference for most countries because the
incidence of children who are over or under the age range
for which percentages are calculated is minimal. However,
in other cases ECCD programmes include a significant proportion
of children outside the age range chosen (e.g., Brazil, where
more than 90 percent of the more than a million children enrolled
in a pre-school literacy programme were 6 years of age or
older and about 40% were 7 or older).
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| Table 1.--
Gross enrolment ratios for programs of early childhood care
and education/development, circa 1990 and 1998.(not available) |
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| Sixth,
in some reports, the age range was not made clear. In others,
there were inconsistencies in the data presented at different
points of the report (usually minor, but nevertheless inconsistencies). |
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Taking these cautions into account, what can be said about overall
enrolment in ECCD programs during the period? |
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| Tendencies
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| 1. The
general tendency has been for enrolments to increase since 1990. |
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With the major exception of countries that were previously part
of, or heavily influenced by the Soviet Union and that are shifting
away from a socialist orientation, the general tendency has
been for enrolments to increase over the period. In Latin America
and South and East Asia, all of the countries reporting data
for two periods showed an increase, with the exception of Afghanistan.
In the Caribbean, 9 of 10 countries showed increases (or remained
steady at over 100%) with the exception being Grenada. The Cook
Islands in the Pacific showed a decrease, but all others in
the region increased their enrolments. A summary from the Spanish,
Portuguese and French speaking countries in Africa notes a marginal
increase for the region over the period (from 0.7% to 3.6%)
and specifically mentions a decrease only in Togo. The Commission
on ECCE from the African regional meeting at Johannesburg reported
that "enrolment has grown and access, although small, has improved";
there is no indication, however of cases in which there may
have been a decrease. These summaries contrast somewhat with
data from specific countries where enrolments seem to be much
higher than the average (see Table 1) and where Kenya shows
a very slight decrease over the period. |
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As can be seen from the appropriate section of Table 1, decreases
in enrolments were found in all the Central Asian countries
which were former members of the Soviet Union and for which
data were available. These decreases are a product of the break
up of the former Soviet Union, of economic difficulties associated
with independence and the shift to a market-based economic system,
sometimes accompanied by civil war or territorial battles with
neighbours, and of a decentralisation process within the countries.
With these changes, the centrally-supported, extensive and expensive
system of relatively high quality early childhood provision
broke down. This breakdown was particularly significant for
rural areas where attention had been provided through rural
co-operatives. Looking behind these data, there appears to be
a tendency for enrolments to begin to recover slightly over
the last year or more of the period, related to somewhat greater
stability and to financial assistance from abroad, and to the
emergence of a range of new alternatives. |
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| 2.
Although there are a few cases of large, and even rather dramatic,
growth during the period, enrolment increases can more generally
be characterised as small and marginal. |
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Although increases seem to be most significant in Latin America
and in East Asia it is hard to generalise; increases seem to
be more related to the conditions of particular countries than
to regions. The most dramatic increase appears in the Caribbean
where statistics for the tiny Turks and Caicos Islands show
a jump from 0 coverage at the beginning of the decade to a current
enrolment of 99%. Cuba shows a major increase over the period
from 29 to 98 percent, a result of having introduced (and having
included in their statistics) a massive parental education programme.
Honduras, Nicaragua and Paraguay show significant advances but
begin from a relatively low baseline. The same is true of the
Philippines. China, Thailand and Vietnam show important enrolment
increases over the period. |
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In most cases, however, change has been modest, slogging along
at one or two percent per year. This slow pace is not necessarily
bad from a programmatic viewpoint because, in theory, it allows
time for needed human resources to be put in place and for adjustment
when new programmes are introduced. Forcing a rapid pace can
be particularly difficult and even inefficient if the human
resources are not available to deal with the new situation.
Moreover, real participation by communities in the creation
and growth of early childhood programmes is difficult if a fast
pace of growth is desired. It is likely, however, that the slower
pace of increase in enrolments represents a kind of inertia
and a failure to give priority to ECCD in often difficult economic
conditions. And, continued low enrolments mean that many children
are deprived of an experience that could help them to realise
better their potential and perhaps even help to lift them out
of poverty. |
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The African report from Johannesburg states that "Ten years
after Jomtien, despite efforts of some governments, very little
progress has been made to achieve the set goals." |
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A rough conclusion that can be drawn from the above is that
a great deal of work is still needed if ECCD programmes are
to have a significant effect, nationally, on the lives of children,
families and countries. |
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| 3.
The variation in enrolment rates is huge, ranging from almost
zero to more than 100% across countries. |
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From Table 1, the variation by region and within regions is
obvious. Countries are at very different moments in the process
of developing and implementing programmes. This fact, when added
to the obvious cultural and economic differences among countries
reinforces the idea that formulas should be avoided. |
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| 4. Attention
to ECCD continues to be very much focused on "pre-schooling"
and is concentrated on the age just prior to entry into primary
school |
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This pre-primary age may be as young as age 4 (because kindergarten
is considered part of the primary school system and the enrolment
of age 5 is virtually 100, a situation found in various Caribbean
countries), or as "old" as age 6. |
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That most countries have made their major advances in enrolment
in the year immediately preceding entrance into primary school
can be shown by looking at the countries in Table 1 that report
data only for age 5 or 5-6, and/or which break down enrolment
figures by each age from birth to primary school entrance (e.g.,
Chile and Japan). These cases all indicate a strong bias toward
"pre-school" education as the main strain of ECCD. In Latin
America, at least 6 countries (Argentina, Costa Rica, Chile,
Cuba, Mexico, Peru and Uruguay) can point to enrolment figures
over 80% for the year prior to entry into primary school. |
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Very few countries provided a detailed breakdown of enrolments
for each age from 0 to 5 or 6. Exceptions are Chile and Japan
which present the following: |
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AGE
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CHILE
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JAPAN
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0-1
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3%
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2.9%
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1-2
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4%
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12.1%
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2-3
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22%
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18.75%
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3-4
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35%
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57.5%
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4-5
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36%
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92.7%
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5-6
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83%
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96.9%
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The general point is reinforced when one takes into account
that various countries include in their statistics special programmes
designed specifically to prepare children for primary schooling
(summer courses or, as in the case of Brazil, a "literacy" programme).
The data on new entrants to primary school with some ECCD experience
(which will not be analysed in this paper) also reinforces the
conclusion. |
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A corollary of the above follows: |
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| 5. Coverage
is very low in institutionalised ECCD programmes for children
under 2 (and even for children under 4) years of age.
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In most of the world, the tradition of mothers or other family
members caring for very young children at home on a full time
basis continues to be the norm. Accordingly, parental support
and education programmes that will help parents to do a better
job of helping their young children not only survive and grow
but also develop to their full potential are extraordinarily
important. This fact, together with the hope that many people
can be reached at a relatively low cost, has led to a spate
of "parenting education" programmes during the decade. These
are often mentioned in country reports but are usually not included
in statistics. |
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Although countries in the Minority World (Kahn and Kamerman
1994) and in Eastern Europe (Evans, et. al, 1996) and Central
Asia are likely to provide families with non-institutionalised
supports (maternity and paternity work leaves, sick leaves,
child payments, housing subsidies), this type of support for
families with young children is seldom found in the Majority
World where responsibility for the first years falls squarely,
and even exclusively in some places, on family and community.
Sweden reports a relatively high proportion of children aged
1 to 2 in childcare centres. |
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| 6.
Urban children are more likely to be enrolled in some sort of
ECCD programme than rural children. |
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In their reports, many countries disaggregated enrolment figures
into urban and rural coverage. Sometimes these figures compared
the GER for urban areas with the GER for rural areas. In these
cases, it seemed clear that urban children were favoured (see
the case of Indonesia in Table 1). In other cases, however,
the enrolment figure was simply divided into two parts, showing
that a certain percent of the total enrolment was in urban areas
and the rest in rural areas. For instance, the summary report
for Spanish, Portuguese and French speaking countries in Africa
indicates that "more than 80% of the facilities are situated
in urban zones..." (p. 7) What we do not know in these cases
is the percentage of the total population that is urban (or
rural) in order to calculate the relative coverage of the population
group in each. |
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In a number of countries there is a suggestion that rural enrolments
have grown more than urban enrolments during the period but
nevertheless continue to lag. The bias toward urban areas is
probably greater for day care programmes which are usually linked
to urban work situations, but this information is not available
in reports. |
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| 7. Children
from families that are better off economically and socially
are more likely to be enrolled than children from families with
few resources and/or that are part of groups discriminated against
socially. |
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This bias is related to, but is not congruent with, the urban-rural
differences noted above. In the country papers, almost no attempt
was made to present hard data showing how enrolment is related
to economic or social status. The main exception is Chile which
presented information derived from household surveys. The Chilean
data, presented in Table 2, show the direct relationship between
enrolment and income. Note that the enrolment in 1996 was more
than twice as high for children from families in the upper fifth
of the income distribution as it was for children from families
in the lowest fifth. (It is likely that the differences would
have been much more dramatic if the upper and lower ranges were
defined as deciles instead of quintiles.) |
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| Table 2.
Early Education Coverage by Income Level in Chile: 1990 and
1996 (not available) |
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The data also show that increases over the six-year period for
those in the lowest fifth lagged behind increases for those
in the upper fifth, increasing the inequity of coverage during
the period. Presenting information of this sort requires a certain
degree of political maturity and a critical stance. |
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The above is suggestive but obviously cannot be taken as the
basis for a generalisation. The relationship between coverage
and income will vary from country to country, but, despite recent
efforts to "target" programmes at lower income groups (see,
for instance Fujimoto, p. 106 for Latin America), the relationship
probably holds for most countries. |
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Very little information could be found in the country reports
on enrolment distinguished by cultural or ethnic groupings.
However, there was evidence of special programmes for ethnic
minorities in many of the reports, suggesting that these groups
lag behind in attention within ECCD programmes. |
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| 8. In
most countries, there is virtual parity between boys and girls,
but there are exceptions to this generalisation in which girls
lag. |
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Nepal, Pakistan, India, the Maldives and Iran are cases in point.
Several of the countries in the Middle Eastern and North African
area also show lower enrolments for girls but there is evidence
that the gap is narrowing slowly. Gender inequality tends to
be magnified in rural areas. |
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| 9. The
role of the state, private sector institutions and communities
varies widely from region to region and country to country.
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In socialist countries (including former members of the USSR,
Laos, Cuba, and Sweden among others) responsibility for education
in general has been a major responsibility of the State, including
education and care during the pre-school years. Accordingly,
important efforts were made prior to the 1990s to develop state-funded
systems of comprehensive care and early education. During the
1990s, however, the role of the state changed dramatically in
many of these countries. With new-found independence and a shift
toward a market economy. |
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The socialist stance contrasts markedly with that of the United
States and the United Kingdom where ECCD has developed along
mixed private and governmental lines, but with a heavy bias
toward private and community provision regulated through the
market. |
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In Africa, with some exceptions, governments have paid little
attention to ECCD which has been viewed as the responsibility
of families and communities. Non-governmental organisations
(that are statistically labelled as "private" but might better
be considered part of a "social" sector) have played an important
role in the region. |
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In Latin America, the percentage of enrolments accounted
for by non-governmental programmes runs between 10 and 15% for
most countries. In the Caribbean, heavy emphasis is placed on
private and community programmes. |
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In South East Asia, Indonesia reports 19% (1996) and Thailand
reports 24% (98) of their enrolments administered by organisations
that are not part of the government |
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Additional comments on this theme are offered later in the paper. |
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