Four in 10 children missing out on early education in Pacific [1]
Thursday, April 11, 2019 - 16:32. Updated on Friday, May 3, 2019 - 13:44.
Four in every 10 children in the Pacific Islands are missing out on early learning, putting them at a disadvantage from the start, warns a new UNICEF report.
The number contributes to the more than 175 million children, around half of pre-primary-age children worldwide, not enrolled in pre-primary education.
UNICEF’s first ever global report on pre-primary education A World Ready to Learn: Prioritizing quality early childhood education [2] highlights that children in pre-primary education are more than twice as likely to be on track in mastering early literacy and numeracy skills than children missing out on early learning.
In the Pacific, UNICEF is supporting 14 countries to increase access to pre-primary education. Good progress has already been made in a number of countries, including Fiji, Cook Islands, Tokelau, Vanuatu, Solomon Islands, Kiribati and Federated States of Micronesia. Whereas for Tonga, no data [3] is available, although pre-primary education facilities do exist.
UNICEF Pacific Representative, Sheldon Yett said pre-primary schooling is our children’s educational foundation and every stage of education that follows relies on its success.
“In the Pacific islands progress has been made and more children than ever before are enrolled in pre-primary education. But the most vulnerable are still denied this opportunity. This increases their risk of repeating grades or dropping out of school altogether and relegates them to the shadows of their more fortunate peers.”
The report reveals that children enrolled in at least one year of pre-primary education are more likely to develop the critical skills they need to succeed in school, less likely to repeat grades or drop out of school, and therefore more able to contribute to peaceful and prosperous societies and economies when they reach adulthood.
In Pacific island countries, reports also indicate children who attend pre-primary programmes have higher achievement results in literacy and numeracy later in primary school.
The report notes that household wealth, mothers’ education level and geographical location are among the key determinants for pre-primary attendance. Conflict and disaster also affect enrolment however, poverty is the single largest determining factor.
Domestic education budgets
A lack of investment in pre-primary education by most governments globally, is highlighted in the report.
In 2017, domestic education budgets around the world showed an average of 6.6 percent dedicated to pre-primary education. Nearly 40 percent of countries with data allocated less than 2 percent of their education budgets to this sub-sector.
Many countries in the Pacific islands set aside less than 5 per cent of total education expenditure for pre-primary education, according to the Pacific Regional Council for Early Childhood Education report (2017). This is well below the international benchmark of 10 percent expenditure on pre-primary education.
This lack of worldwide investment in pre-primary education negatively impacts quality of services, including a significant lack of trained pre-primary teachers.
Together, low and lower middle-income countries are home to more than 60 per cent of the world’s pre-primary-age children, but scarcely 32 per cent of all pre-primary teachers. In fact, only 422,000 pre-primary teachers currently teach in low income countries. With the increase in populations, assuming an ideal pupil-teacher ratio of 20 to 1, the world will need 9.3 million new pre-primary teachers to meet the universal target for pre-primary education by 2030.
UNICEF is urging governments to make at least one year of quality pre-primary education universal and a routine part of every child’s education, especially the most vulnerable and excluded children. To make this a reality, UNICEF calls on governments to commit at least 10 percent of their national education budgets to scale up early childhood education and invest in teachers, quality standards, and equitable expansion.
Mr Yett said if today’s governments want their workforce to be competitive in tomorrow’s economy, they need to start with early education.
“If we are to give our children the best shot in life to succeed in a globalized economy, leaders must prioritize, and properly resource, pre-primary education.”