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

1. ECCE and Attention to Transition– the Route to Equality Is Everybody Ready? Caroline Arnold Aga Khan Foundation South Asian Regional Conference August 27 – 29, 2012 Early Childhood Care and Education Policies and Practices: Towards 2015 and Beyond

2. ECD:Significant and sustained benefits Key to addressing deep-rooted patterns of discrimination and exclusion Studies – India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Turkey,Egypt, Jamaica, Guinea, South Africa, US, UK, Peru Most dramatic gains for disadvantaged

3. Nepal ECD 84% Non-ECD 42%Double Results most dramatic for dalit children and girls Initial Enrollment into Grade 1 ECD > 95% All children 75% (district) Promotion from Grade 1 to 2

4. 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

5. 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: ECCENon-ECCE 50/50 61/39 Grade 2: ECCENon-ECCE 54/46 66/34

6. Pakistan RCC (Transition Project) Key Findings Learning Achievement Test scores, Class 1 • Benefits most pronounced for girls and government schools serving the most disadvantaged

7. GDP & Grade 3 Language Scores 05-134 • Language Score • 351 • 247 • 242 • 240 • 236 Country Chile Mexico Colombia Brazil Cuba GDP $ 9.930 6.769 6.347 5.928 3.100 UNESCO 1998

8. BUTEarly Childhood Care and Education AND Early Primary is when Education Systems fail children (especially marginalized children) the worst

9. 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 Failure to provide adequate financial resources (national governments and international donors)

10. 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% • Bangladesh Wealthiest 20% >2X as to have learning opportunities at home

11. 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)

12. 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

13. 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

14. 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

15. 3 Questions and Challenges: • 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 givingfocused attention to early primary? 3) How can we conceptualize and implement work so that ECCE and early primary part of a whole?

16. 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

17. 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

18. 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

19. GENERATE AND USE LOCAL EVIDENCE Afghan Badakshan: 2005: half as many girls in Grd.6 as in Grd.1 ECCE & Focussed attention to early primary introduced 2011: 17% fewer girls in Grd.6 as in Grd.1

20. Attention to ECCEincludingearly primary Key to Countering discrimination and Ensuring a good start for ALL CHILDREN

21. Thank you Aga Khan Development Network www.akdn.org