Education International Research
4. Early Childhood Education Target 4.2 By 2030, ensure that all girls and boys have access to quality early childhood education, care and preprimary education so that they are ready for primary education The right to education begins at birth. ECE is also crucial to cognitive and socioemotional development. It plays an important role in determining future educational outcomes and in levelling the playing field between disadvantaged children and their more advantaged peers. Equitable access to free ECE also plays a vital role in promoting gender equality, as it can enable mothers to engage in work outside the home. The evidence base on the importance of ECE has expanded considerably in recent years, and the sector has been receiving increased attention from the education community since the adoption of the SDGs. The World Bank’s 2018 World Development Report presented new neuroscientific research on the cognitive benefits of ECE and called on governments to recognise how important providing high-quality, equitable and inclusive ECE for all is to their countries’ economic development. Universal participation in one year of ECE is now the norm in nearly all OECD countries.70 However, across the world, universal access to quality ECE is far from a reality. Though the sector is receiving increased attention, progress toward Target 4.2 remains slow, as many governments still fail to adequately prioritise ECE and ECE remains highly privatised.
ECE versus pre-primary education Target 4.2 refers to “early childhood development, care and pre-primary education” for children to be “ready for primary education”. Among the target’s thematic indictors are the number of years of free, compulsory pre-primary education guaranteed in legal frameworks and the gross enrolment rate in pre-primary education and early childhood educational development. However, EI member organisations point out a problem with the language used in the target and indicators, preferring to speak of “early childhood education”. This preferred term recognises that the institutionalised learning that takes place before primary school is education (not just care), and it therefore frames ECE educators as teachers and professionals. It also recognises the importance of ECE in its own right, rather than only as a means to prepare children for primary school.
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Legislation is widely insufficient to guarantee free and compulsory early childhood education Some jurisdictions such as Taiwan have no legislation regarding free and compulsory ECE. However, other countries have taken steps to ensure free and/or compulsory ECE since the SDGs were adopted. For instance, educators report that Nepal introduced free ECE in 2015, and New Zealand made ECE compulsory in 2018. Others are working to increase the number of years provided. In South Africa, the Department for Basic Education is pushing to increase the provision of free and compulsory early childhood education from one year to two years. In Saint Lucia, all public schools have been mandated to offer compulsory ECE, but this is still being piloted.
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Over half the unions surveyed reported that their countries did not have legislation for both free and compulsory ECE. Even in countries where this legislation does exist, many unions point out that it is not enforced. Lack of legislation guaranteeing ECE is not an issue exclusive to developing countries, but rather one that spans across both the Global South and Global North. For instance, Australia has a policy of one year of guaranteed access to ECE, but it is not a legislated right. 70
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OECD. 2017. Starting Strong: Transitions from Early Childhood Education and Care to Primary Education. Retrieved from: http://www.oecd.org/education/ school/starting-strong-v-9789264276253-en.htm