The Moscow Framework for Action and Cooperation was based on a review of challenges and progress made towards the Education for All (EFA) Goal 1 of expanding early childhood care and education (ECCE). Participants reaffirmed a commitment to ECCE as expressed in Jomtien (1990) and Dakar (2000) but concluded that EFA Goal 1 was at great risk of not being achieved by 2015 unless urgent and resolute action was taken. It noted the need to address relevant challenges by taking advantage of the existing knowledge base and good practices and taking steps to universalise the latter. The Moscow Framework sets out a call for action focused on: mobilising stronger commitments to ECCE; reinforcing effective ECCE programme delivery; harnessing resources for ECCE; cooperation; as well as targeted calls for action to donors and UNESCO.

 

This document lists the international instruments that refer to the right to education of early childhood care and education (ECCE).

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This paper explores early childhood care and development (ECCD) as the main foundation for child survival and holistic human development. It frames ECCD interventions and programmes as essential investments by governments, over the short-term and long-term, giving rise to benefits for children’s education, for children’s development and for parents. 

This paper presents a thematic analysis of documents produced during a recent ‘Regional Policy Forum on Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE)’, attended by over 200 participants including representatives from key international donor organisations and high-level officials from over 30 countries across the Asia Pacific region. The paper begins by providing a brief overview of international developments in ECCE over the past two decades, highlighting a growing argument that points to the need for a shift in policy and programming agendas away from target setting at international levels, towards the promotion and support of localised, contextually grounded approaches to supporting policies and programmes in ECCE. In an attempt to find ways of establishing empirical support for this argument, the paper explores the extent to which key messages delivered by international donor organisations and representatives at the Policy Forum can be seen to reflect the current activities and concerns of countries within the region (as expressed through individual country reports presented during the forum). Based on results of this analysis, the paper concludes with recommendations for balancing the ‘local’ and ‘international’ influence on policy making and agenda setting as countries in the Asia Pacific region move forward with provision of formalised ECCE post-2015.

 
 

This study presents some of the major drivers and challenges encountered in policy planning for early childhood care and education (ECCE), an analysis of the evolution of ECCE policy planning in all world regions from before 2000 to the present, and data regarding the current national and regional distribution of ECCE policies, strategic plans and laws. As of July 2014, at least 68 countries had adopted one or more of these ECCE policy instruments. An additional 10 countries are reliably reported to have adopted policy instruments, and 23 countries are currently preparing them. Country case studies on policy development and initial implementation are provided, including Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Colombia, Myanmar and Rwanda. Finally, salient conclusions and recommendations are offered. This paper was commissioned by the Education for All Global Monitoring Report as background information to assist in drafting the 2015 report.

 
 

This study investigates the emergence and supply-demand dynamics of a market for low-fee private schools (LFPS) at the level of early childhood care and education (ECCE) in a slum of Lusaka, Zambia. Based on data collection over 1.5 years, the study reveals that, despite a government policy to support ECE, over 90 per cent of ECCE centres are private; that school operators tend to be former teachers, businessmen/women, and religious leaders; and that LFPSs charge, on average, 2.5 times as much as government ECCE centres for tuition, not including additional indirect costs. The paper discusses how teachers in LFPSs are caught in the middle, making less than the average income earned by others in the surrounding slum, and are unable to afford LFPS fees themselves. Importantly, the paper highlights that lower income quintiles spend a greater percentage of their income on ECCE, and that a majority of families in the study must make trade-offs between ECCE, food, housing, and other basic expenditures in order to afford private ECCE, which is a necessity given the inadequate supply of government ECCE centres. In addition to addressing school strategies for keeping costs down, this study reports on parental decision-making when it comes to school selection. Finally, beyond a straight market analysis of LFPSs at the ECCE level in Zambia, this article also comments on how this market fits into the dialectical nature of local and global contexts. That is, it draws attention to the workings of the Zambian state and its precarious position in the global capitalist economy.

 

Based on the analysis of 45 countries, which represent 85 per cent of global GDP and close to 60 per cent of the global population and workforce, this microeconomic simulation study provides an estimation of the employment generation in care sectors, including early childhood care and education, primary and secondary education, tertiary education, ill/patient care (short-term care) and long-term care for older persons and persons with disabilities. By estimating levels of required expenditure, the potential expansion of employment in education and health and social work is considered under a high road scenario and a status quo scenario. The status quo scenario is developed to keep the current coverage rates, quality standards and working conditions constant, based on the idea that there would be no change in the policy environment. On the other hand, the high road scenario builds on relevant targets set by the Sustainable Development Goals, including Goal 4 on quality education, among others.

 
 

The 2007 UNESCO Education for All Monitoring Report focuses on the first Education for All goal, which calls upon countries to expand and improve early childhood care and education – in the form of a holistic package encompassing care, health and nutrition in addition to education.

 

Background paper for discussion at the 12th Session of the CEART (Paris, 20–24 April 2015). The increasing importance of early childhood development (ECD) and its ongoing evolution make even more essential the improvement in the one factor that most determines the quality of ECD services: their teachers, facilitators, caregivers, and other personnel who plan, manage and staff these services. Increasing their professionalism and status and making their working conditions more ‘decent’ therefore is an essential element of any comprehensive ECD policy and programme.

 
 

This document is the executive summary of the study on the right to education and care in early childhood: perspectives from Latin America and the Caribbean. The study focused on the analysis of national legislations and public policies in force (particularly general education laws) in 10 countries of the region (Mexico, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Honduras, Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil and Colombia) and shares understandings of existing early childhood education policies and legislation, as well as financing and justiciability processes, identifying progress and also challenges involved in the realisation of the human right to education of young children. At the same time, it seeks to understand how the principles and purpose of education enshrined in the Convention on the Rights of the Child and its associated General Comments, appear in those education public policies and legislations.

 

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