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Integrating ECCE is necessary to achieve SDG 4, which calls for an inclusive and high-quality education for all. The Transforming Education Summit highlighted this integration to address the equity and relevance crises in education. A lack of comprehensive data, inadequate funding, and fragmented ECCE policies and services are significant obstacles. Extending the right to education to include ECCE could greatly enhance early learning, yet no international legal framework currently ensures this right. Addressing these issues is critical for supporting foundational learning and ensuring equitable access to quality early education, essential for preparing children for primary education and beyond. The Tashkent Declaration’s goals to change and improve global ECCE practices are in line with this effort.
Disparities And Financing In ECCE
Disparities in child development begin early and are pronounced among disadvantaged groups. Approximately 30% of children worldwide are not on track developmentally, with those from poorer households and rural areas facing significant challenges. In contrast, however, it faces significant challenges including underfunding, lack of cohesive policies, and insufficient data. In order to guarantee that children will be prepared for primary education by 2030, it is urgently necessary to increase access to and the quality of ECCE. Despite calls for increased funding, actual investment in ECCE remains low, with global median spending on pre-primary education at just 0.4% of GDP. Closing this financing gap is critical, especially considering that the required investment to meet pre-primary education goals by 2030 is estimated at USD 354 billion for low and middle-income countries.
What Is The Basis For UNESCO’s Approach To This Work?
UNESCO regards ECCE as a fundamental and integral part of the education system and a solid foundation on which to build lifelong education, lives, and careers. All of its work in this area is aligned with target 4.2 of Sustainable Development Goal 4, which aims to ‘By 2030, ensure that all girls and boys have access to quality early childhood development, care and pre-primary education so that they are ready for primary education.’ UNESCO developed a Global Partnership Strategy to close the gap and guarantee that all children have access to high-quality ECCE, early primary school years, and family education.
UNESCO’s work is based on the idea that ‘Learning begins at birth,’ introduced in the World Declaration on Education for All Jomtien declaration. Young children have the right, as stated in the Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989), not only to live, but also to thrive and grow to their full potential. Ten years later, UNESCO’s World Conference on Early Childhood Care and Education (Moscow 2010) warned that the EFA Goal on ECCE was ‘at great risk of not being achieved by 2015 unless urgent and resolute action is taken’ and highlighted ECCE as a social, human, and economic development imperative.
With only six years left to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG 4) on inclusive and quality education, the world remains significantly off-track. Millions of children are falling behind in their developmental milestones and many lack access to pre-school education, putting their future learning opportunities at risk. Addressing these educational deficits is crucial to ensuring that every child has the opportunity to thrive and succeed.
A significant step forward to addressing these needs was taken with the adoption of The Tashkent Declaration for Early Childhood Care and Education, the outcome of the World Conference on Early Childhood Care and Education (WCECCE), held in November 2022. As the first high-level intergovernmental event in the field of education to be organized after the Transforming Education Summit (TES), the conference served as a platform for diverse stakeholders to discuss experiences. To further support these goals, one of the commitments of the Tashkent Declaration is the first Global Report on Early Childhood Care and Education, jointly prepared by UNESCO and UNICEF, with the support of GPE, ILO, OECD, WHO, and The LEGO Foundation. Building on new findings on the key issues facing ECCE, the report provides recommendations to governments and the international community to promote an integrated ECCE ecosystem that better supports children and families.
How Does UNESCO Work To Promote ECCE?
UNESCO collaborates with governments and other key stakeholders concerned with the care and education of young children from birth until primary school entry. Its ECCE activities focus on promoting holistic and quality pre-primary education for all children over the age of 3, ensuring the use of developmentally appropriate pedagogies and emphasizing the links with primary education as well as early childhood health, nutrition and social services.
Concretely it works with Member States at national, regional and international levels by influencing policies and practices through evidence-based advocacy, knowledge generation and sharing, partnership-building, capacity-building and technical assistance. These include work in teacher development through projects like STEPP (The Survey of Teachers in Pre-Primary Education), parenting education and family literacy, and measurement and monitoring.
UNESCO promotes the integration of an ECCE component in countries’ education sector plans to address the needs of different age groups and includes the marginalized. Partnerships that involve working with health, nutrition and social sectors as well as civil society and private sector actors help widen the reach to children.
Key Recommendations To Ensure A Robust Foundation For Children’s Rights In ECCE
Key recommendations to ensure a robust foundation for children’s rights in ECCE include promoting ECCE for school readiness, prioritizing vulnerable children, supporting parents and caregivers, valuing ECCE personnel, investing in data, leveraging research, increasing investments by governments, enhancing international efforts and partnerships, and expanding the right to education through a legally binding international framework. By implementing these recommendations, stakeholders can address the comprehensive needs of young children globally, setting a foundation for better educational outcomes and lifelong benefits.
