A Review of Early Childhood Education (ECE) in Bangladesh: Status and Impact

Abstract

This literature review has evaluated the effort and promise of investing in early childhood education in the context of Bangladesh in terms of policy, access, quality and impact. The findings on access showed that with improved policies and provisions from government, there has been a dramatic increase in pre-primary enrolment where along with government other private providers have come up in the early-years education space contributing significantly in terms of providing access. The review could not find consistent and disaggregated data on the access and provisions for the younger cohort of children aged 3 to 5 years old who are supposed to be under early childhood education provisions according to the ECCD policy. The review found evidences of positive correlation between quality and child learning outcomes in the context of Bangladesh, however, the criteria, definition and interpretation of ‘quality’ for ECE is yet to be studied and implemented. It is quite evident from the review that there are variation of teachers’ qualifications and lack of materials and evidences of pedagogical practices in the ECE classrooms. Along with quality, this review found impact of ECE in two areas: school readiness and primary school achievement.