 Half the world’s countries have no early childhood care and education (ECCE) policy for children under age three, according to the latest edition of the annual Education for All (EFA) Global Monitoring Report. Despite well-documented benefits for child development and well-being, the 2007 Report finds that very few countries, especially in the developing world, have national policies for early childhood that integrate care, health and nutrition with education. While pre-school is universal in most Western European countries, much needs to be done to increase pre-primary school enrolment rates in developing countries, including in East Asia and the Pacific, and in South and West Asia. The report notes that participation in pre-school ranges from 62% in Latin America and the Caribbean, as against only 35% in the developing countries of East Asia and the Pacific, 32% in South and West Asia, to 16% in the Arab States and 12% in Sub-Saharan Africa.
“It is no coincidence that the first Education for All goal focuses on the youngest and most vulnerable children,” said Koichïro Matsuura, Director-General of UNESCO. “Improving their well-being at the earliest age must be an integral and systematic component of education and poverty reduction policies. High-level political endorsement is essential to getting early childhood care and education on the agenda.”
Early childhood care and education is the first of the six EFA goals the world is committed to achieving by 2015 and is the theme of the 2007 edition of the Report. The study also includes an assessment of progress towards the other five EFA goals, showing a marked acceleration in primary school enrolments, for both boys and girls, and an increase in aid to education, offset in several countries by a decline in national education spending.
The 2007 EFA Global Monitoring Report was launched by the Director-General of UNESCO, Koïchiro Matsuura at the UNICEF House in New York on 26 October. The Director of the Global Monitoring Report Team, Nicholas Burnett, and UNESCO Assistant Director-General for Education, Peter Smith, also presented the Report’s findings and implications for policy-makers and the donor community. The Report is prepared annually by an independent team of experts and published by UNESCO, the lead agency for the EFA initiative. |
