Early Childhood Care and Education: Building the Foundation for Lifelong Learning and the Future of the Nations of Asia and the Pacific

Abstract

The progress of the Asia-Pacific region towards the first goal of Education for All, ‘expanding and improving comprehensive early childhood care and education (ECCE), especially for the most vulnerable and disadvantaged children’, is reviewed in this article. Comprehensive ECCE aims to foster holistic growth, development and learning of children from birth to eight years of age and as such, it involves diverse and interlinked care and education areas, such as health, hygiene and nutrition; early stimulation, guidance and development activities; and support to parents and families. Although the pre-primary enrolment has increased in the past decade at the regional level, huge disparities continue to exist among and within countries, and the countries in the Asia-Pacific region are far from providing equal opportunities for all children from birth. While highlighting country examples that aimed at expanding and improving the quality of ECCE, the paper points out the remaining challenges in the region, such as inter-sectoral co-ordination, reaching the most marginalised groups as well as the under-threes, increasing public investment in ECCE and setting quality standards to ensure quality ECCE for all children.