Starting Early, Starting Strong: Pre-primary Education for All

Group Submission Type: Formal Panel Session

Proposal

Participation in high-quality pre-primary education is increasingly recognized by the global education community as a critical factor in improving young children’s foundational academic and non-academic skills prior to beginning primary school (UNICEF, 2019). Children who enter primary school with these foundational skills are more likely to achieve grade-level learning outcomes and less likely to repeat grades (Raikes et al 2020; Roa et al 2017). Additionally, a growing body of evidence shows that early learning opportunities matter in increasing timely enrollment in primary school, increasing rates of primary school completion, improving the likelihood of progressing to higher levels of education, and increasing overall lifetime income (Raikes et al 2020; Roa et al 2017; Tanner et al 2015).

Furthermore, access to high-quality pre-primary can help address equity issues by providing critical early learning opportunities to the most marginalized and vulnerable who are less likely to have rich home learning environments. Pre-primary education can be an effective means of addressing the critical gaps in skill levels that already exist between the wealthiest and poorest children at the beginning of primary school and which often widen over time (Alcott 2017; Reardon 2012). Thus, children who are among the most marginalized and vulnerable can benefit the most from access to high-quality early learning programs.

Yet despite pre-primary education’s clear advantages, 175 million children in low- and middle-income countries(LMIC) cannot access pre-primary education. In low-income countries only one in five children attend pre-primary (UNICEF, 2019). This situation was further exacerbated by the pandemic, when pre-primary classes were rarely prioritized for reopening and remote learning opportunities did not reach most young learners (State of the Global Education Crisis, 2021). Unfortunately, the children most likely to find themselves without access to pre-primary are those already marginalized or vulnerable due to specific factors including poverty, ethnicity, disability, crisis and conflict and location. On average, the poorest children in low-income countries are eight times less likely than children from the wealthiest families to attend an early childhood program (UNICEF, 2022). The lack of access to early learning opportunities means that most children in lower and middle income contexts may enter primary school without the cognitive, social-emotional, and language skills needed to reach their potential.

As the international educational development community works to make pre-primary accessible for all children, it’s important to prioritize the most marginalized and vulnerable and to support inclusive pre-primary programs that target the children who will derive the greatest benefit from early learning opportunities. Providing high-quality pre-primary education to children who are marginalized by crisis and conflict, poverty, ethnicity, location, disability or other factors will be critical in ensuring that the Sustainable Development Goal 4.2 of ensuring inclusive and equitable education for all be met.

In this roundtable discussion, speakers will highlight programs and research focused on increasing access to high-quality pre-primary to the most marginalized and vulnerable learners in a number of contexts. Presenters will discuss different program models which work with a variety of stakeholders in an effort to ensure that programs meet the needs of local communities.
Presenters will also discuss ongoing research which will address important gaps in the research base regarding designing and implementing effective pre-primary programs in LMICs. In addition, presenters will preview a recently published landscape assessment of inclusive pre-primary in LMICs and share findings around the most significant challenges and emerging best practices in the sub-sector.

Sub Unit

• Early Childhood Development SIG

Chair

• Rebeca Martinez, USAID

Individual Presentations

• Strong Beginnings: Developing the Whole Child - Kate Schuenke-Lucien, University of Notre Dame

• The LEGO Foundation - USAID partnership prioritizing pre-primary children affected by conflict in Ethiopia - Leah Anyanwu, The LEGO Foundation

• Designing and Implementing High Quality Pre-Primary Education Programming for Refugee and other Marginalized Children in MENA - Heidi Rosbe, IRC

• Disability Inclusive Pre-Primary Landscape Review - Eileen Dombrowski, Inclusive Development Partners

Discussant

• Joanie Cohen- Mitchell (Cohen), USAID/E3/office of Education