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1. Towards a coherent and strong pre-primary sub-sector

Tue, March 27, 5:00 to 6:30pm, Hilton Reforma, Floor: 2nd Floor, Don Genaro

Proposal

As Ministries of Education, especially in low and lower middle income countries, take up the pre-primary agenda, there is a need to consider how best to support the successful development (or strengthening) of a functional pre-primary sub-sector, nascent or non-existent in most cases. Taking a systems approach to scaling up pre-primary education requires careful analysis and consideration of the key building blocks of the sub-sector as well as the bottlenecks that might exist within and across core functions of the sub-sector. These include the overall enabling context as well as the principal functions of the sub-sector, including planning, curriculum and standards, pre-primary workforce, monitoring and quality assurance, engagement of families and communities, among others. This paper will discuss UNICEF’s experience with the development of a framework for implementing quality pre-primary services at scale by building coherent and competent pre-primary sub-sectors. We will present the systematic framework that identifies the essential components within the pre-primary sub-sector, as well as their dynamics, interrelations, and interactions. Countries, namely policymakers and other interested stakeholders, may use this framework to construct an understanding of what is required to develop a strong pre-primary sub-sector. The framework is also intended to help national partners reflect on and identify the strengths and gaps of the existing early learning context, while providing a roadmap for addressing the challenges that governments may face in expanding access to quality pre-primary services. It sets a critical foundation around which other work and related activities in the pre-primary sub-sector can be organized, including the development of a sub-sector implementation plan. The vision; development process; structure; content of the framework and the accompanying planning and analysis tools will be discussed, followed by a country example where these tools were recently utilized to support the national expansion plan, ultimately leading to the crafting of coherent pre-primary implementation and action plan.

References

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