Early Childhood Education

Early education, sometimes referred to as early childhood care and development (ECCD), emerged at the 1990 World Conference on Education for All, held in Jomtien, Thailand, as an important extension of the more traditional approach to basic education, in which "education" begins with entrance into school. According to the Jomtien Declaration, "learning begins at birth. This calls for early childhood care and initial education. These can be provided through arrangements involving families, communities or institutional programs, as appropriate." One of the targets for the 1990s of the Jomtien Framework for Action was an "expansion of early childhood care and development activities, including family and community interventions, especially for poor, disadvantaged and disabled children." The Jomtien Declaration and Framework for Action gave international presence and sanction to early childhood care and development, and to "initial education" in a way that it had not enjoyed previously. Expectations were raised at Jomtien in relation to:(a) the well-being of young children; (b) enrollments; (c) conditions favoring improvement in ECCD programs; and (d) shifts in the type and quality of program being provided.

It is difficult to understand changes in the field of early childhood care and development without paying attention to the broader context in which changes occur. Trends that have important effects on ECCD include: industrialization, urbanization, and internal migration; declining birth rates; technological and scientific developments; globalization; changing social values; the mobilization and emancipation of women; internal strife and civil wars; the ecology movement, the HIV/AIDS pandemic; and moves toward greater administrative decentralization. While space does not allow a detailed description and analysis of these changing contexts, or of their effects on childrearing practices, the welfare and quality of life of young children, and the evolution of ECCD programs, it should be noted that conditions and contexts, as well as the rate at which they are changing, vary widely among and within countries, making it likely that changes in ECCD, for good or ill, may be more closely related to local circumstances than to the influence of the World Conference on Education for All and the ensuing activities.

The Well-Being of Young Children

Health and nutritional status. Despite the fact that millions of children in the world still die from preventable diseases, major advances have been made since the 1980s in reducing infant and child mortality. For example, the positive effect of immunization programs on infant mortality has been widely documented, and polio is on the verge of being eradicated. Micronutrient supplementation programs seem to have had important positive effects; particularly notable are advances related to the provision of vitamin A and iodine.

At the same time, it is important to note the dramatic setback in general well-being related to the HIV/AIDS pandemic, particularly in Africa. Major health advances and remaining challenges are documented in the annual reports of the World Health Organization and United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF). Relatively high levels of undernourishment and vitamin deficiencies continue in many parts of Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Moreover, feeding programs have not always lived up to expectation. For example, two evaluations carried out in Latin America found that there was little or no improvement in the nutritional status of participants in ECCD programs, despite a relatively high cost of feeding children in the programs. Evaluations suggest that broad approaches, directed to the whole family, need to be promoted if health and nutrition components of ECCD programs are to be effective in improving the well-being of young children–simple supplementary feeding programs are insufficient.

Psychosocial development and learning. Unfortunately, very few countries provide measures of the psychosocial well-being of young children, or of their advances in learning during their early years. It is therefore impossible to judge advances in this area for national populations or to link advances to the many program initiatives that have been undertaken.

Enrollment

The most commonly used indicator for early childhood programs is the percentage of a particular age group who are enrolled in recognized programs, creating a gross enrollment ratio (GER). From the evaluation reports presented by countries prior to the World Education Forum held in Dakar in 2000, it is possible to obtain a rough overview of enrollments and changes over the last decade of the twentieth century. Although the data need to be interpreted with caution, a number of conclusions seem to be valid.

General enrollment trends. The general tendency has been for enrollments to increase since 1990. In Latin America and southern and eastern Asia, all of the countries reporting data showed an increase in enrollments, with the exception of Afghanistan. In the Caribbean, all but one country (Grenada) showed increases (or remained steady at more than 100 percent). Cook Islands in the Pacific showed a decrease, but all other countries in the region increased their enrollments. A summary from the Spanish-, Portuguese-, and French-speaking countries in Africa notes a marginal increase for the region during the 1990s (from 0.7% percent to 3.6%), and specifically mentions a decrease only in Togo. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) reported in 1999 that "enrollment has grown and access, although small, has improved" (UNESCO 1999b); there is no indication, however, of cases in which there may have been a decrease.

As a major exception to the above, decreases in enrollments were found in all the central Asian countries that were former members of the Soviet Union, and for which data were available. These decreases are a product of the breakup of the former Soviet Union, of economic difficulties associated with independence and the shift to a market-based economy (sometimes accompanied by civil war or territorial battles with neighbors), and of a decentralization process within the countries. With these changes, the centrally supported, extensive, and expensive system of relatively high-quality early-childhood provision broke down. This was particularly significant for rural areas where attention had been provided through rural cooperatives. It appears, however, that enrollments began to recover slightly during the late 1990s, related to somewhat greater stability, financial assistance from abroad, and the emergence of a range of new alternatives.

The most dramatic increases during the 1990s appeared in the Caribbean, where statistics for the tiny Turks and Caicos Islands show a jump from zero coverage at the beginning of the decade to an enrollment of 99 percent. Cuba showed a major increase over the period (from 29% to 98%), a result of having introduced (and having included in their statistics) a massive parental education program. Honduras, Nicaragua, and Paraguay also showed significant advances, but began from a relatively low baseline. The same is true of the Philippines. China, Thailand, and Vietnam also showed important enrollment increases.

In most cases, however, change has been modest, slogging along at one or two per cent per year. UNESCO reported that "ten years after Jomtien, despite efforts of some governments, very little progress has been made to achieve the set goals" (UNESCO 1999b). It can be concluded, therefore, that a great deal of work is still needed if ECCD programs are to have a significant effect on the lives of children, families, and countries.

In 1998, the variation in enrollment rates was enormous, ranging from almost zero to more than 100 percent:

• In Latin America, Ecuador reported a coverage of 14 percent for children up to age five, contrasting with 98 percent for Cuba.
• In the Caribbean, Belize reported 26 percent of its children three to five years of age were enrolled, contrasted with 100 percent for the Bahamas and Jamaica.
• In the Middle East and North Africa, Yemen reported 1 percent, and Bahrain 36 percent, of children ages three to five were enrolled.
• In southern and eastern Africa, Zambia reported 7 percent of children ages three to six were enrolled, whereas Mauritius report an enrollment of 98 percent for children four and five years of age.
• In central Asia and eastern Europe, Afghanistan reported 0 percent enrolled, Tajikistan reported 4 percent of children ages one to six were enrolled, and Russia reported an enrollment of 54 percent. Seychelles, an island nation in the Indian Ocean, however, had 107 percent enrollment.
• Enrollments in the Pacific Islands vary from 15 percent in Fiji to 73 percent in Papua New Guinea and 100 percent in Tuvalu.

These immense disparities across countries, when added to the obvious cultural and economic differences within countries, reinforces the idea that formulas should be avoided.

Preschool trends. Attention to ECCD continues to be very much focused on preschool, and is concentrated on the age just prior to entry into primary school. This preprimary age may be as young as four (because kindergarten is considered part of the primary-school system and the enrollment at age five is virtually 100 percent, a situation found in various Caribbean countries), or as old as age six. Data from the evaluation reports, when broken down by age, shows the greatest enrollments for age five or ages five to six. In Chile, for instance, 83 percent of children five to six are enrolled, as compared with only 35 percent of children three to four. In Japan, the corresponding figures are 97 percent and 58 percent. These figures support the notion of a strong bias towards preschool education as the main strain of ECCD. In Latin America, at least seven countries (Argentina, Chile, Costa Rica, Cuba, Mexico, Peru, and Uruguay) can point to enrollment figures of more than 80 percent for the year prior to entry into primary school. The general point is reinforced when one takes into account that various countries include in their statistics special programs designed specifically to prepare children for primary schooling.

Coverage is very low, however, in institutionalized ECCD programs for children under two, and even under four, years of age. 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 programs that will guide parents in helping their young children not only to survive and grow, but also to develop their full potential, are extraordinarily important. Together with the hope that many people can be reached at a relatively low cost, this has led to a spate of parenting education programs. These are often mentioned in country reports, but are not usually included in statistics.

Although countries in the Third World, and in eastern Europe and central Asia, are likely to provide families with noninstitutionalized support (e.g., maternity and paternity work leave, sick leave, child payments, housing subsidies), this type of support for families with young children is seldom found in developed nations, where responsibility for the first years falls squarely, and even exclusively in some places, on family and community. Sweden has reported a relatively high proportion of children ages one to two in child-care centers.

Urban versus rural education. Urban children are more likely than rural children to be enrolled in some sort of ECCD program, though in a number of countries there is a suggestion that rural enrollments grew more than urban enrollments during the 1990s. The bias towards urban areas is probably greater for daycare programs, which are usually linked to urban work situations, but this information is not available in reports.

Socioeconomic factors. Children from families that are better off economically and socially are more likely to be enrolled than are children from families with few resources or that are part of groups discriminated against socially. Although this statement is logical and comes from a general literature review, in evaluation reports prepared for the World Education Forum almost no attempt was made to present hard data showing how enrollment is related to economic or social status. The main exception is Chile, which reported a direct relationship between enrollment and income based on household survey data–in 1996, enrollment for children under six years of age was more than twice as high for children from families in the upper fifth of the income distribution (48%) as it was for children from families in the lowest fifth (22%). In the period from 1990 to 1996, enrollment grew 32 percent for the lowest income group and 49 percent for the highest.

Boys versus girls. In most countries, there is virtual parity between boys and girls, but there are exceptions in which girls lag behind. Nepal, Pakistan, India, Maldives, and Iran are cases in point. Several of the countries in the Middle East and North also show lower enrollments for girls, but there is evidence that the gap is slowly narrowing. Gender inequality tends to be magnified in rural areas.

Political factors. The role of the state, of private-sector institutions, and of communities varies widely from region to region and country to country. In nations with a socialist bent (including former members of the Soviet Union, the Lao People's Democratic Republic, Cuba, and Sweden, among others) education has been a major responsibility of the state, including education and care during the preschool 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, sometimes with newfound independence and a shift towards a market economy.

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 towards private and community provision regulated through the market. In Africa, with some exceptions, governments have paid little attention to ECCD, which has been viewed as the responsibility of families and communities. Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs)–which are statistically labeled as private, but might better be considered part of a social sector–have played an important role in the region.

In Latin America, the percentage of enrollments accounted for by nongovernmental programs runs between 10 percent and 15 percent for most countries. In the Caribbean, heavy emphasis is placed on private and community programs. In Southeast Asia, Indonesia reported 19 percent (1996) and Thailand reported 24 percent (1998) of their enrollments were administered by organizations that are not part of the government.

Changes in Conditions Affecting ECCD Programming

The immediate conditions affecting ECCD are changing, including shifts in: (1) knowledge and its dissemination, including the conceptual and scientific bases available to be drawn upon and the formation of communication networks; (2) attitudes and awareness of political leaders, funders, planners, and the population at large about the importance of ECCD and its potential benefits; (3) policies and legal and legislative frameworks for programming, both internationally and nationally; (4) the availability of resources, both financial and human; and (5) organizational bases, both governmental and nongovernmental.

Changes in the knowledge base and conceptual shifts. In a survey carried out by Robert Myers, the most frequently mentioned advance in knowledge related to ECCD during the 1990s was an advance in understanding how the brain develops and functions. To many survey respondents, it was clear that new discoveries in neuroscience–and their dissemination through scientific, professional, and popular channels–have had an important influence on the demand for, and the willingness to consider support for, early childhood education and development programs. An example is the finding that there are "windows of opportunity" for learning during the early years when learning particular practices is most efficient and which, if missed, make subsequent learning very difficult.

Also mentioned with some frequency was a growing body of knowledge from research studies and program evaluations showing long-term benefits of early intervention programs for children at risk. It is now possible to point to longitudinal studies in various countries showing clearly that ECCD programs can have effects on children in primary school. A prime example is the excellent work done in Turkey, in which children cared for in different settings, and whose mothers participated in a parent education program, were shown to benefit in later life from such programs. These studies have helped to convince policymakers and programs of the value of investing in ECCD. They reinforce the Jomtien commitment to including early education within basic education.

These studies, together with the few cases where there has been some agreement on an indicator of psychosocial development and where consistent measurement has occurred over time (e.g., Chile), show that:

• Programs of reasonable quality do have important positive effects on early development, often with longer-term effects.
• The effects can favor rural children who are at a social disadvantage.
• An important improvement in the nutritional status of children does not automatically bring about the anticipated improvement in various dimensions of psychosocial development.
• The area of language development seems to show a consistent lag in development related to socioeconomic conditions, as well as to first-language differences.

Other new avenues of research that are beginning to influence practice include studies of resilience; conditions under which programs can have a negative effect on child development (for example, when the quality of a center is very low); and child-rearing practices and patterns.

A range of conceptual shifts was also noted by survey respondents. For example, although a behaviorist model that is not very "child friendly" still holds sway in some countries, there has been a shift towards active learning and the constructivist ideas of Jean Piaget (1896–1980). Although Piaget has had a strong influence on early childhood curricula and practices, particularly in the developed world and in Latin America, even more of a shift has been noted towards programs based on the thinking of Lev Vygotsky (1896–1934). While not contradicting Piaget, Vygotsky places greater emphasis on social and cultural influences that affect all aspects of children's development (as contrasted with emphasis on individual discovery) giving renewed importance to the role of the teacher and to the place of language in the teaching/learning process.

The influence of ecological and transactional models that gained prominence in the 1980s continues to provide a basis for complementary approaches to ECCD that work towards changing the family, community, and broader institutional and cultural environments with which a child interacts in the process of developing and learning.

The search for best practices, which took off in the 1980s, continues, but the chorus of those who question the search for universals and the base for best practices in developmental psychology has grown ever louder. Additional importance is being attached to discovering, respecting, and incorporating cultural differences into thinking about how early childhood education and care should occur. Viewpoints grounded in anthropology, sociology, ethics, and other fields are being brought to bear on ECCD, highlighting the need to begin with the cultural and social definitions of childhood and education held by those who are the participants in early childhood programs rather than with a predetermined set of definitions and models imposed from outside. This tendency is consistent with a strand of thinking about social and economic development that is grounded in local participation, and in "putting the first last," as Robert Chambers aptly subtitles his study.

To try to overcome inevitable tensions between international and local expressions of what "should be," a third path is evolving in which the search for best practices begins by looking for and supporting those practices valued both in terms of traditional wisdom based on experience and their scientific value. Points of difference are handled through dialogue in which underlying values are made explicit.

There are also shifts in the way planning, programming, and implementing organizations are going about moving knowledge into action. For instance, there is a tendency for ECCD programming to be set within broader frameworks such as poverty alleviation. There have also been calls for a "new citizenry" as transitions to democracy occur, and for moderating problems of street children and criminal behavior. Incipient is a tendency to think more in preventive, rather than compensatory, terms.

Related to globalization, there appears to be a conceptual shift in how governments see their role in the provision of ECCD services, with a tendency toward privatization.

Changes in attitudes, awareness, policies, and legal frameworks. The 1980s and 1990s saw an important increase in awareness of the importance of ECCD, sometimes linked to research findings, sometimes to evaluations and the perceived effectiveness of particular programs, and sometimes to discussions of children's rights. In some circles, awareness has grown of the importance of the very early years, not only linked to research on the brain, but also to a new appreciation for the effects of bonding and attachment.

In some cases, this new awareness has been translated into policies and/or legal and legislative frameworks. Some countries have lowered the age of entrance into primary school, thereby giving what had been one year of preschool a new obligatory status; others have declared one or more years of preschool education to be obligatory. New policy statements have been issued in several countries, India being a prime example. In Africa, new policies appeared in at least ten countries during the 1990s. In the Caribbean, a regional plan of action has been jointly approved and is moving into an operational phase. However, new awareness and new laws do not necessarily translate into greater financial commitment to ECCD, or to major advances in enrollment or quality.

Changes in the availability of financial resources. During the 1990s the availability of financing from international banks and donors for ECCD programs increased significantly, particularly from the World Bank, with important new initiatives financed also by the Inter-American Development Bank and the Asian Development Bank. The picture is less clear, however, with respect to national budgets. Little specific information is available about national financing of ECCD programs, but the general impression is that very small proportions of educational budgets are devoted to early childhood programs. According to a UNESCO report, "governments in general have neither the financial nor administrative capacity to engage in early childhood education in the way they are involved in the provision of primary universal education" (UNESCO 1999b).

Estimates are not available for the financial support that is provided by the private and social sectors. Despite laws in some countries that mandate employers to provide child care, the contributions of the private sector to ECCD seem to be minimal. The low allocations by governments and the private sector suggest that the major burden of financing ECCD continues to fall on families and communities, as well as on civic and religious organizations.

Changes in program strategies and quality. Shifts appear to be occurring, albeit slowly, in the strategies used to foster early childhood development and to improve learning and education during the preschool years. For example:

• Although most attention in the field continues to be focused on the immediate preschool years, there is more attention being given to children under four years of age–not only through health programs, but also through programs of parental education that include attention to psychosocial development.
• Although fractured and uncoordinated sectoral and monofocal programs still predominate, more attention is being given to multidimensional strategies that seek convergence, coordination, or integration.
• Strategies more often provide for a variety of service models, using a range of different agents, as contrasted with the still prominent strategy that extends the same service and the same model to all families and children, regardless of their culture and circumstances.
• Somewhat greater attention is being given to adjusting curricula to culture, as the idea of "beginning where people are" is gaining ground.
• The presence of nonformal programs has grown.

Unfortunately, very little is known, in a systematic way, about the quality of ECCD programs in the developed world, whether defined in terms of inputs, processes, or results. It has been difficult to arrive at an agreement about the instruments and methods that should be used for measuring quality. Nevertheless, it seems fair to say that program expansion has outrun attention to quality.

Problems and Proposals

Weak political will. In many, even most, countries, the need continues to convince politicians, policy-makers, programmers, and education officials of the importance of ECCD. To do so, better strategies of communication, lobbying, and advocacy are needed, together with a better information base related to systematic monitoring efforts.

Weak policy and legal frameworks. In order to formulate and strengthen policy there is a need to: (1) undertake analytical studies of existing policies affecting children, looking beyond narrowly conceived educational policies to (for example) social welfare, health, and labor policies; (2) seek conformity with the Convention on the Rights of the Child; (3) establish norms and standards that are not so rigid or high as to be unworkable, but which will assure positive attention to children; and (4) clarify the roles of the family, state, civil society, and the private sector–as well as forms of partnerships among them.

Lack of, or poor use of, financial resources. ECCD programs generally command a small portion of government budgets. There is a need to increase, and make more permanent allocations to, ECCD in national budgets; strengthen the capacity of states and municipalities to obtain resources for ECCD; and seek cost-effective approaches, including quality community-based nonformal programs. In addition, alternative avenues of funding, such as debt swaps, philanthropic contributions, and private-sector involvement, need to be explored, and local organizations should have access to central pools of money in order to better respond to the needs of local communities.

Uniformity (lack of options). The bureaucratically convenient tendency to extend the same program to all children conflicts with the need to tailor ECCD programs to cultural, geographic, economic, and age differences. There is therefore a need to: (1) think in terms of complementary and varied approaches to ECCD that include family and community-based programs; (2) involve NGOs more actively as partners; (3) decentralize; and (4) construct culturally relevant programs with local communities.

Poor quality. There is a pressing need to reexamine training and supervision, and provide sound training (both pre-service and in-service) at all levels, with respect to a diversity of ECCD approaches, and to reduce the number of children (or families) per education/care agent. Curricula must be improved and reformulated, taking into account local definitions of what constitutes best practices. In addition, existing experience can be drawn upon in a more systematic way, and better systems for monitoring and evaluating children and programs need to be established.

Lack of attention to particular populations. The following "disadvantaged" populations need to be given greater attention: low-income, rural, and indigenous populations; girls; HIV/AIDS patients; children up to three years of age; pregnant and lactating mothers; working mothers; and fathers.

Lack of coordination. If a holistic and integrated notion of learning and development is to be honored, and if resources are to be used more effectively, greater coordination is needed among governmental programs, within the education sector (especially between ECCD and primary schooling), and between governmental and nongovernmental organizations. There is a need to create intersectoral, interorganizational coordinating bodies; to construct joint programs crossing bureaucratic boundaries; to strengthen the ability of families and communities to call upon and bring together services that are currently offered in an uncoordinated fashion; and to seek agreement on the populations that are most in need of attention, and then direct services to those populations in a converging manner.

Narrow conceptualization. The conceptual frameworks guiding programs intended to improve early childhood care and development and early learning have come primarily from developmental psychology and formal education. There is a need to go beyond the knowledge that these fields provide to incorporate broader views, with cultural, social, and ethical dimensions brought to bear. There is also a need to relate ECCD programming, conceptually and operationally, to other program lines that begin from (for example) analyses of children's rights, poverty, working mothers, rural development, special needs, refugees, adolescents, and gender.