ECE Educators in Low- and Middle-Income Countries Face Unique Challenges

Building an Effective Early Childhood Education Workforce | 129

The principles outlined in this chapter apply equally to LMICs and HICs. However, there are some challenges that are unique to LMICs that should be considered in efforts to develop and sustain a thriving ECE workforce.

Diverse Roles and Qualifications, and Limited Professional Representation

In many countries, ECE educators are employed on an informal basis and tend to be younger than those in other, more formalized education sectors (OECD 2019a). They are less likely than primary or secondary school teachers to be members of trade unions or of professional groups.

Variations in regulatory structures mean that a wide range of professional entry requirements are in place. ECE educators may have no academic background or professional training in ECE, some noncredentialed informal training in ECE, a teaching certificate for ECE or a degree in a nonrelated field, a degree in ECE, or a non-ECE degree with a postgraduate diploma in ECE. Even where professional entry requirements do exist, training opportunities that match these requirements may not yet be available. In 2018, only 60 percent of ECE educators in low-income countries met the minimum academic qualification required to be employed as ECE educators, whereas 80 percent of primary school educators met the minimum required qualifications for employment (UNESCO UIS 2019). This situation is particularly evident in remote and rural areas, where large proportions of ECE educators are unlikely to have attained basic professional entry requirements (Neuman, Josephson, and Chua 2015).

Diverse and Challenging Working Conditions

Many ECE educators work with children in informal, unregulated settings. For example, ECE might refer to community-supported preschools that occupy temporary spaces or mobile programs that serve children in marginalized and geographically remote communities. Although such situations provide important spaces and opportunities for innovation, they also carry the risk of being poor working conditions for some ECE educators. Understanding the unique diversity of settings in LMICs is crucial for ensuring equitable systems that support a thriving workforce.

Where ECE educators have limited access to preparation or training, it is particularly important that they be provided with basic tools to support their practice, including clear, user-friendly curriculum guidelines and supporting materials. To provide high-quality ECE, early childhood

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educators need to have suitable physical environments for teaching, manageable class sizes, appropriate educational materials, and supportive families and communities, and need to operate within a child-friendly policy environment. However, analyses based on the World Bank’s Systems Approach for Better Educational Results: Early Childhood Development (SABER-ECD; World Bank 2019) indicate that 8 out of 13 low-income countries do not have infrastructure standards for nonstate preprimary institutions, and 6 out of 13 low-income countries do not have them for state-run facilities. Where regulations do exist, compliance with standards tends to be limited. Out of 37 LMICs that completed the SABER-ECD, only 11 reported compliance with the recommended 1:15 staff-to-child ratios (World Bank 2019). Suggested staff-to-child ratios do not seem to take into account differences in children’s needs, such as differences in socioeconomic background (OECD 2019b). In most cases, staff-to-child ratios tend to be lower in urban than in rural areas. Relatedly, where the ratios are higher, there is a tendency for educators to be less qualified, indicating that the least qualified or prepared staff are dealing with more challenging working conditions.

Severe Shortage of ECE Educators in Rural Areas

Early childhood educators in rural areas, where children may be in particular need of high-quality ECE because of resource constraints at home, are in severely short supply. Although not the sole determinant, the shortage of early childhood educators in rural areas has exacerbated disparities between urban and rural areas in the quality of ECE programs (Sun, Rao, and Pearson 2015). In rural and remote areas, ECE educators’ roles have traditionally been seen as caregivers or “substitute mothers” with no need for professional training. In rural areas, there are insufficient opportunities for initial and continuing PD to address this lack of qualifications. Furthermore, there are gaps in availability of suitably qualified personnel to monitor ECE quality or to make the kinds of mentoring and supervisory visits that are deemed important in lowresource settings where formal training opportunities may be limited (Neuman and Devercelli 2013). Teachers’ lower qualifications can also contribute to retention issues, especially when combined with the lack of parity in pay and in conditions of service with primary school educators.

Regulations are fundamental to improving working conditions and quality; however, the challenges outlined above call for innovative thinking and a level of flexibility around workforce preparation. For example, focusing on in-service training opportunities may be more practical for educators working in remote or hard-to-reach locations.