Heidi Gibson, Director of Global Schools First, CEI,
For years, childhood education professionals have advocated for early access to early childhood development (ECD) programs as a means of leveling the playing field between better-resourced, more affluent students and more marginalized and vulnerable students. Focusing on early literacy and numeracy skills during the pre-primary and primary years can be a useful way to address achievement gaps. However, ECD programs often feel pressured to spend the bulk of their time on specific literacy and numeracy competencies, ignoring some of the “soft skills” that are critical to development in the early years. These skills, including social-emotional learning and global citizenship competencies, not only increase students’ success in school, but also help prepare them for their future as adults.
Rachel Wisthuff, Assistant Director, OPPA, UNICEF USA,
Early childhood education (ECE) or pre-primary education is one of the smartest investments countries around the world can make. As a core component of early childhood development in concert with nutrition and protective, loving care, early learning is critical to a child’s first 1,000 days when their brains are developing more rapidly than at any other time in life.
Little Ripples is an early childhood education program that empowers refugees and communities affected by humanitarian crises to deliver child-centered, quality, and comprehensive pre-primary education that supports the social-emotional, cognitive, and physical development of children ages three to five. Little Ripples is designed to be refugee- and community-led in order to build long-term capacity and address the unique needs of children and communities affected by trauma, violence, displacement, and uncertainty.
On Thursday, April 11th during the World Bank Civil Society Meetings the Global Campaign for Education-US moderated a panel on the Importance of Investing in Disability Inclusion Early Childhood Education with representatives from the Bank Information Center, Light for the World, Open Society Foundations, and the World Bank.
The global indicator for SDG 4.2.1, the goal focused on early childhood, is the “percentage of children under 5 years of age who are developmentally on track in health, learning and psychosocial well-being.”The most recent SDG 4 Data Digest from UNESCO evaluates progress against creating the right measures for this and clearly identifies that we “need a definition of developmentally on track.”
