Child to Child Concept Paper

Preparing Children for Primary School
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Child-to-Child: A Promising Approach

Education Section

Programme Division

UNICEF, New York

Initial Working Draft prepared by

Cassie Landers (ECD Consultant)

Revised and finalised by

Abhiyan Jung Rana (Education Programme Officer)

Cream Wright (Global Chief of Education)

February 16, 2007

Preparing Children for Primary School

Child-to-Child: A Promising Approach

Draft Concept Paper

I. Introduction and Rationale…………………………………………………………… 3

II. Intervention Overview………………………………………………………………… 7

III. Country Selection……………………………………………………………………..12

IV. Program Evaluation...……………………………………………………………..…13

V. Roles and Responsibilities…………….……………………………………………15

VI. Proposed Project Phases..…………………………..……………………………..16

Annex I and III. Introduction and Rationale

UNICEF supports countries and contributes to achieving the MDGs (Millennium Development Goals) through its Medium Term Strategic Plans (MTSP). In the latest MTSP (2006-2009), programming priorities are strategically organized around five Focus Areas as follows:

· Focus Area 1. Young child survival and development

· Focus Area 2. Basic education and gender equality

· Focus Area 3. HIV/AIDS and children

· Focus Area 4. Child protection from violence, exploitation and abuse

· Focus Area 5. Policy advocacy and partnerships for children’s rights

This latest MTSP for 2006-2009 reflects an organisational shift in the approach and management of UNICEF’s Early Childhood Development (ECD) programming. In the previous MTSP (2002-2005) ECD was one of five organisational priorities. It combined elements from health, nutrition, education, water and sanitation, into an Integrated Early Childhood Development (IECD) programme, managed through the ECD Unit in the Programme Division. This integrated approach, while grounded in theory, proved difficult to implement within governments’ existing vertical and sectoral Ministries. The current MTSP (2006-2009) therefore organises ECD within two of 5 new organisational Focus Areas that are more clearly sector driven, while still requiring major cross-sectoral implementation strategies. Elements of ECD are contained in Focus Area 1 (Young Child Survival & Development), which concentrates on the needs of very young children and seeks to integrate child development components into existing health, nutrition and water and sanitation programmes. Additional elements can be found in Focus Area 2 (Basic Education & Gender Equality), which concentrates on the later years of development, particularly in terms of children’s developmental readiness and their preparation for starting school at the prescribed age, with appropriate competencies.

Within this programming framework the main concern in dealing with ECD as an integral part of Focus Area 2 (Basic education and gender equality) is reflected in targets set for improved developmental readiness of all children for a successful and on-time start to primary school, especially for girls and marginalized children. This is the first Key Result Area (KRA) in a logical chain of 4 inter-related result areas that include: reducing gender and other disparities in relation to increased access, participation and completion of quality basic education; improving education quality and supporting increased school retention, completion and achievement rates; restoring education in emergencies and post-conflict situations, and helping to safeguard education systems against the HIV/AIDS pandemic. While progress has been made in most of these areas, ECD is currently the weakest link in the chain of 4 inter-related result areas in terms of overage children in grade 1, children reached by ECD programmes, national budget allocations to ECD, and the priority assigned to ECD in national policies and plans.

Investing in ECD programs: What do we know?

During the past decade economists, behavioral scientists, educators, neuroscientists, and biologists have all recognized the importance of the first six years of life. Early childhood programs can improve the well being of young children especially in the developing world where a child has a four in ten chance of living in extreme poverty and 10.5 million children a year die from preventable diseases before age five. It is a time of tremendous brain growth that lays a foundation for later learning. What, how, and how much children learn later in school largely depends on the social and emotional competences and cognitive skills they develop in the first few years of life. The impact of such programs on participation in primary school education and beyond is well documented. Preschool experiences in the United Kingdom for example, were shown to result in improved intellectual development independence, concentration and social skills during the first three years of primary school.

Studies in several developing countries point to links between participation in early childhood programs, primary school enrolment and better results over at least three to four years, particularly for disadvantaged children. In a poor district of Nepal, 95% of children who attended an early childhood program went on to primary school, as opposed to 75% who did not. Children attending the program had significantly higher marks on exams at the end of grade 1. The Turkish Early Enrichment project in low-income areas of Istanbul, comprising preschool and support to mothers, resulted in 86% of the children still being in school after seven years, compared with 67% for non-participants. The higher an African country’s pre-primary enrolment ratio, the higher its primary school completion rate and the lower its primary repetition rate. It is more cost-effective to institute preventive measures and support for children early on than to compensate for disadvantage as they grow older.

In spite of the increased recognition of the importance of learning in the early years, in most developing countries far too many children still do not have access to any form of early education programs before starting school. As indicated in Table 1, while approximately 78% of children in industrialized countries are enrolled, only 10% of the preschool population is reached in West and Central Africa. There are, however, marked regional differences in trends dating back to the 1970s. In Latin American and the Caribbean, which has witnessed the strongest increase, three quarters of countries now have pre-primary GERs above 75% while in sub-Saharan Africa, despite a steady increase since the 1970s, half the countries have ratios lower than 10%. In the Arab States, coverage has been fairly stagnant since the 1980s. GERs have expanded noticeably across Asia. In South and West Asia most countries now enroll between one-third and one-half of their children in pre-primary education. (Figure 1)

Figure 1: Regional trends in pre-primary gross enrolment ratios, 1970/71 to 2003/04

It is important to recognize that there are large disparities within countries. With a few notable exceptions, children from poorer and rural households and those socially excluded (lacking birth certificates), have significantly less access to ECD programs than those from richer and urban households. The children most likely to benefit from ECD--those most vulnerable to malnutrition and preventable diseases--are the least likely to be enrolled. Moreover, the youngest children have been neglected. Almost half the world’s children have no formal programs for children under three years of age.

Related to low ECD enrolment rates is the impact of late primary school enrolment. As shown in Table 2, 49.7% of first graders are overage in East and Southern Africa. Starting school at a late age and also lacking the needed early learning skills, most of these children are likely to drop-out early or lag behind in progression and learning achievement. This in turn undermines the results achieved in school retention, completion and learning achievement rates.

Investment in early childhood yields very high economic returns offsetting disadvantage and inequality especially for children from poor families. Although research is limited, especially in developing countries, returns to investing in ECD programs are positive, and indeed generally higher than those to other education interventions. Returns to ECD investments are reaped over a longer period than those targeting older children, youth or adults. Furthermore the skills acquired in ECD programs are a foundation for all further learning. In spite of the high rate of return of investing in early childhood programs, world wide public expenditure per pre-primary pupil is 8.7 % of GNP/capita as shown in Table 3.

The provision of good-quality early childhood programs are essential for all children, but particularly important for the poor and vulnerable, to compensate for disadvantage. As the Noble Laureate James Heckman observes, “It is a rare public policy initiative that promotes fairness and social justice and at the same time promotes productivity in the economy and in society at large. Investing in disadvantage young children is such a policy.”

Table 1:

Comments: UNESCO data. Almost all countries are covered and the numbers for pre-primary GER are therefore representative for the regions and the world as a whole.

Table 2:

Share of children in first primary grade who are overage, ca. 2000

UNICEF region / Overage first-graders (%) / Regional primary-age population covered by countries with data (%)
CEE/CIS / 17.0 / 18.2
EAPR / 30.2 / 15.7
ROSA / 0.0
MENA / 33.8 / 22.1
ESAR / 49.7 / 22.9
WCAR / 42.1 / 38.3
TACR / 19.1 / 10.4
IND / 0.0
World / 35.6 / 12.8

Data source: UNICEF, MICS surveys, ca. 2000. – Weighted by population of primary school age.

Table 3

Public current expenditure per pre-primary pupil as % of GNP/capita, ca. 2004

UNICEF region / Average expenditures per pre-primary pupil (% of GNP/capita) / Regional population of pre-primary age covered by countries with data (%)
CEE/CIS / 20.1 / 17.1
EAPR / 1.2 / 15.0
ROSA / 11.6 / 1.5
MENA / 7.2 / 8.0
ESAR / 1.6 / 17.6
WCAR / 6.4 / 5.8
TACR / 9.0 / 52.6
IND / 14.5 / 43.0
World / 8.7 / 16.4

Data source: UNESCO, EFA Global Monitoring Report 2007 database, http://gmr.uis.unesco.org/selectindicators.aspx, 21 December 2006. – Weighted by population of pre-primary age.

A Promising Solution

It is clear that additional efforts and strategies are urgently required to make the type of break through that would yield a sound ECD foundation for basic education. Clearly if the current weaknesses in ECD are not addressed in an effective and comprehensive manner, progress in the other key result areas of basic education and gender equality will continue to be severely compromised. Programming efforts in Basic Education and Gender Equality will continue to support all the current channels that promote effective and efficient ECD interventions. In addition serious efforts will be made to open up additional channels for supporting ECD in developing countries through cost effective and efficient interventions.

This concept paper outlines one of the most promising alternative channels in the quest to provide cost effective and efficient interventions in ECD in developing countries. It is a viable intervention channel that is based on two simple and self-evident assumptions.

(a) Apart from (or in addition to) their primary care givers (usually parents), young children below school age are influenced most by other children; typically older siblings, playmates or “minders”, with whom they interact on a daily basis.

(b) By working with these older siblings, playmates and minders, who are already in school, the education system can build on this natural phenomenon to influence child development and school readiness in a more systematic manner.

These assumptions are the basis on which a child-to-child approach is being advocated as an additional channel for interventions to support ECD in terms of development and school readiness. The proposed interventions will enable older children already in school to provide much needed support to younger children before they start school, in order to help them develop early learning competencies and get them ready to start school at the right age. There is already a successful and well-known precedent in the development and implementation of a child-to-child model, and this approach will seek to build on it.

Child-to-Child is best known as a model developed by the Child-to-Child trust in London and widely adopted by developing countries as a means of promoting health education through children. Child-to-Child activities are usually integrated within broader health education programmes but are distinguished by the direct and active involvement of children in the process of promoting health education through their interaction with younger children or children of the same age group in their families and communities. The proposed new approach will draw on these same principles to address the key challenges of providing ECD opportunities for the great majority of children in developing countries who are not likely to have access to any of the existing range of ECD services in the foreseeable future.

Recognizing the relative lack of formal pre-school learning and other ECD opportunities for most children in developing countries, this approach seeks to enable primary school children to serve as a potential resource in meeting the needs of younger children during a critical period in their development and preparedness for school. The overall goal is to ensure that all eligible young children are enrolled in primary school at the appropriate age and arrive with the necessary skills, enthusiasm and confidence to become successful learners. The success of the approach will be gauged on the basis of contemporary knowledge about what works for quality ECD interventions to support children and their families, as well as on the impact it has on timely enrolment, retention rates and progression through the primary education cycle.

II. Intervention Overview

A. Goals and Objectives

In an effort to provide preschool early learning opportunities within the home and community, child-to-child materials and methods will be integrated into ongoing primary school activities. Building on the natural phenomena of school children playing with and caring for young children, the proposed intervention hopes to foster a rhythm of schooling by preparing preschool children and their families for on time school enrolment, readiness and success.

The overall goal of the initiative is to increase both the child’s readiness for school as well as the school’s readiness to receive and foster optimal learning environments for its youngest students. More specifically, the initiative aims to:

· Increase both girls’ and boys’ on-time enrollment in primary school;

· Ensure that children arrive at school with a strong foundation in language, early literacy and numeracy as well as the social and emotional skills required for learning;