Pre-primary education has not always had the attention it needs to improve in low- and middle-income countries. It is time to turn a corner.
Large numbers of children are missing out on pre-primary education in some low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Ensuring that education is of a good quality often presents challenges, as do the costs involved, but some countries are making decisions to spark change.
The opportunity to develop pre-primary education
There is a huge opportunity to develop pre-primary education in developing countries. Under half of all pre-primary aged children in some LMICs are enrolled in education, showing the room for improvement that can still be made.
Moreover, around one in four children aged five have never received any form of pre-primary education worldwide. With populations quickly increasing across many developing countries, it is even more essential to ensure that education is fixed rapidly. Otherwise, more children than ever before risk falling behind their peers.
Challenges facing pre-primary education in LMICs
While the opportunity to improve pre-primary education in the developing world is enormous, there are two major challenges to overcome: cost and quality. Beyond the sheer number of children not in education, up to half of pre-primary teachers are not currently qualified to provide quality education in some developing countries.
Additionally, some developing countries have very few quality standards in place for early childhood development centres. Of the centres functioning, very few are often fully registered; this number falls below 10% in some countries. There is often limited monitoring and compliance too, with existing guidelines and minimum standards not effectively enforced. This lack of accreditation naturally leads to varied service quality in pre-primary education.
There are issues surrounding cost as well, with teachers at early childhood development centres often working without standardised pay, adequate training or resources.
Overcoming quality issues
While there are significant challenges facing pre-primary education in developing countries, they can be overcome. Incorporating minimum standards is an essential step for increasing the overall quality of pre-primary education. In one country where we work, there have been recent developments to increase pre-primary education quality through doing this. A few years ago, the country's Ministry of Education published Basic Requirements and Minimum Standards (BRMS) guidelines. Though well-intentioned, the Ministry has since recognised that the standards were too generic. Instead of specifying the needs for pre-primary education, they simply laid out guidelines for all educational institutions more generally.
However, the Ministry has been working with partners to bring in the expertise required to define what sufficient quality looks like. As a result, there will be more effective minimum standards, covering factors such as the curriculum, staffing, health, safety and wellbeing, culture, family and community engagement, governance and leadership, and financial matters.
Acasus is currently supporting the Ministry in delivering more effective minimum standards for pre-primary aged children across the country. Visits were recently conducted to over 25 pre-primary institutions across the country, in order to guide the Basic Requirements and Minimum Standards (BRMS) development process. With these visits important for identifying what needs to be done, an effective implementation of new standards could help to improve education for the millions of pre-primary aged children in the country.
Laying strong foundations
A lot of progress still needs to be made to develop pre-primary education in developing countries. But some countries are making changes to turn the situation around. Implementing Basic Requirements and Minimum Standards (BRMS) for pre-primary education is an important and simple step that can often be implemented within a few months. These standards can then guide pre-primary education institutions, and can be slowly refined over time, to produce high-quality education.
