Is the importance of the pre-primary sector undervalued in education planning? A case of pre-primary sector analysis in Nepal

• In Event: Poster session 2

Proposal

Background of the study
The focus of global education has shifted from access to primary education to access to other levels of education in the Post-2015 agenda. Under this trend, more stakeholders pay attention to the Early Childhood Development (ECD) sector because the investment in the ECD sector is a rare investment that can achieve both economic efficiency and equity at the same time (Heckman 2006). In other words, the ECD sector has an untapped potential to realize a prosperous and equal society.

However, the potential of the ECD sector has not been realized yet because of an issue in education planning. International education stakeholders such as the UNESCO and Education Commission have constructed various types of education projection models for education planning. However, these models do not take into account the impact of improvement in the ECD sector on the following education levels. This failure leads to an undervaluation of the sector and less buy-in from education stakeholders.

At the same time, this failure to capture the impact of the ECD sector investment on the following education sectors comes from a problem in education research. Indeed, there are few studies that measure this impact. For instance, Barnett (1985) shows that a high-quality preschool experience enables disadvantaged children to have less remedial and special education placement and repetition. This cost reduction derived from these factors is worth about 90% of the cost of ECD program implementation.

However, most of the previous research in this field tends to focus on the impact of ECD intervention only within the pre-primary sector. In the case of pupils to teacher ratio, studies are such as the National Institute of the Child Health and Human Development Early Child Care Research Network (2000) and Mashburn et al. (2008). In the case of a working condition of facilitators, studies are such as Hantsman (2008) and Phillipsen et al. (1997). (This study distinguishes the ECD sector from the pre-primary education sector as follows: Early Childhood Development refers to child’s status as being physically healthy, mentally alert, emotionally sound, socially competent, morally and spiritually developed and ready to learn. This requires comprehensive and multi-sectoral intervention. The pre-primary education sector is a part of the ECD sector)

Accordingly, this study fills the gap in research about the impact of the pre-primary sector improvement on subsequent education sectors from the point of human capital theory. In other words, this study answers a research question: to what extent the importance of the pre-primary education sector undervalued in education planning?

Methodology
This study employs a projection model whose basics are same as the cohort reconstruction method but it integrates the impact of the ECD sector improvement on a following education sector. The model provide various scenarios with different parameters based on a rigorous literatre review. Then, the model compares a scenario that does not consider this impact and scenarios that take into account this impact to measure the degree of undervaluation of the ECD sector.

The projection model uses data from the following sources: Single age population projection from the United Nations Population Division, current education indicators from Flash I report 2017-18 published by the Ministry of Education Nepal, key education targets from consultation with local ECD stakeholders, and parameters that capture a relationship between improvement in the ECD sector and its impacts on the subsequent education level from the literature review.

Results
We created various scenarios based on the projection model. Reduction of pupils to facilitator ratio and increase in facilitator salary put an additional fiscal burden on the government budget. However, these costs are substantially recovered. In Nepal, 13% of grade 1 children experience repetition, and this phenomenon requires the primary education sector to hire a greater number of teachers if the sector maintains an adequate pupil to teacher ratio. Since the investment in the ECD sector tackles this problem by providing better readiness to children, the cost recovery takes place. Indeed, the reduction of pupils to facilitator ratio can lead the cost recovery. However, the magnitude of the recovery becomes larger when education stakeholders embark on the provision of a better working condition for facilitators. In the case of Nepal, the attrition rate of facilitators is high (about 20%), and it demands the ECD sector to invest heavily in a new facilitator training and lowers the quality of ECD due to a lack of experienced facilitators. Accordingly, the cost of the provision of a better working condition for facilitators is partially offset by a reduction in the training cost in the ECD sector and a reduction in the salary cost in the primary education sector.

One of the limitations of this study comes from an assumption that parameters derived from the literature review are held in the context of Nepal. Future research on the impact of ECD sector improvement on the primary education sector in Nepal eliminates this limitation. Also, this study still undervalues the importance of the ECD sector because this study fails to consider the impact of a better working condition of facilitators on a facilitators labor market. It is highly plausible that a better working condition attracts better candidates in this sector. However, this study only focuses on the impact of a better working condition through a lower attrition rate of facilitators. Future research about a facilitator labor market in Nepal will overcome this limitation.

Authors

• Shota Hatakeyama, Michigan State University

• Kenji Kitamura, Teachers College, Columbia University

• Dipu Shakya, PhD, Education (ECD) Specialist, UNICEF Nepal

• Pemba Tamang, Consultant, UNICEF Nepal