O.4 Prioritizing Investment to Boost Child Learning while Building Quality ECE at Scale

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classroom interactions (Egert, Fukkink, and Eckhardt 2018; Perlman et al. 2016; von Suchodoletz et al. 2017; Wolf et al. 2019; Yoshikawa et al. 2013) in a language that children understand (box O.2). There is also growing evidence that the effectiveness of interventions that improve children’s learning hinges on the coherence of curricula, pedagogy, and teacher professional development (Pianta et al. 2017; Weiland et al. 2018). Interventions that enable rich classroom interactions through safe and stimulating learning spaces, as well as manageable child-to-teacher ratios and group sizes, also facilitate child learning (von Suchodoletz et al. 2017; Yoshikawa et al. 2013).

While working toward long-term objectives, countries should ensure that short- to medium-term ECE policies and services are grounded in the knowledge of what and how young children learn (chapter 1) and achieve a minimum level of quality that benefits children enrolled today (figure O.4). Whereas some of the earlier evidence on the effectiveness of ECE comes from intensive pilot programs in high-income countries that were very expensive,15 growing evidence from LMIC settings points to considerably less expensive and less complex ECE interventions that improve key elements of classroom quality and promote learning gains, especially in settings where the quality of service provision is low and children’s exposure to stimulating learning opportunities is limited.

Figure O.4 Prioritizing Investment to Boost Child Learning while Building Quality ECE at Scale

Prioritize improvements to capacity of existing stock of ECE workforce

Prioritize adoption of ageappropriate pedagogy

Prioritize ensuring existing learning spaces are safe and stimulating While progressively professionalizing the workforce and establishing attractive ECE career pathways

While devising an effective and holistic ECE curriculum

While investing in infrastructure that ensures pedagogically intentional, child-friendly, and flexible spaces for learning

Laying the groundwork for a systems approach that supports holistic interventions across different sectors and environments

Source: Original figure for this publication. Note: ECE = early childhood education.

16 | Quality Early Learning

To sustainably expand effective ECE, countries starting with limited quality should prioritize improving educators’ capacity to support learning in ECE classrooms while gradually investing to professionalize the ECE workforce. The quality of the workforce is one of the best predictors of educationally rich interactions in ECE classrooms (Phillips et al. 2017). Building an effective ECE workforce is an involved, lengthy, and costly endeavor, particularly in systems in which resources and capacity are constrained (see chapters 3 and 5 on educators and leaders, respectively). While incrementally building practical preservice training and establishing attractive ECE career pathways, countries with limited quality should prioritize investments to develop in-service training and continuous professional development approaches that equip educators with an adequate level of content to foster early learning in ECE classrooms. Strategies for ongoing support and professional development, including communities of practice and organizational mentoring, can be effective complements to improving teacher competencies.16 Countries with low ECE coverage and limited ability to rapidly train a high-quality workforce should set qualification requirements that are feasible in the short term while building in opportunities to improve workforce capacity over time (chapter 3).

Interventions to boost the capacity of ECE educators to support child learning need not be very expensive or complex. For example, in BRAC Play Labs in Bangladesh, Play Lab leaders are given short preservice trainings over a period of a few weeks, focused on fundamentals to lead the center, such as room organization, setting up timetables, and basic pedagogical skills, as well as supplementary monthly training through dedicated in-service training days. Community members and parents in this program assist with preparing materials and/or maintaining classroom spaces. This intervention costs US$81 per child per year over the two-year program and has led to improved teaching practices and child development outcomes (Whitebread and Yesmin 2021). In Ghana, the National Nursery Teacher Training Center conducts a five-day in-service preprimary training followed by refresher courses at regular intervals. The approach focuses on experiential learning to help educators understand and apply age-appropriate, play-based approaches in the classroom. Initial findings from an impact evaluation indicate that regular in-service training and ongoing professional development could yield significant positive impacts on teaching and classroom quality, as well as teacher motivation (Wolf et al. 2019). The total cost of implementing the program, including the time value of participants and trainers and direct budgetary expenditures, is US$16 per child (Wolf et al. 2017).

Developing effective curricula that foster early learning takes considerable time and effort (chapter 2).17 To maximize learning in the short run,

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countries with no curriculum or one that needs to be updated can prioritize the adoption of age-appropriate pedagogy and associated guides and learning materials, while an effective curriculum is devised. For example, Bhutan prioritized the development of guidelines for curriculum implementation to orient teachers to their role in the classroom. Bhutan’s 2018 Curriculum Implementation Guide includes information on child development, setting up the physical learning environment, relational pedagogy, classroom management, and child assessment, and provides learning activities organized by weekly themes. Beyond adopting a pedagogy, ensuring its alignment with educators’ in-service training is crucial. In settings where capacity is very low, pedagogical tools and lesson plans can be an additional source to guide educators in the classroom in the short run (see chapter 2). The Tayari preschool program that ran in Kenya from 2014 to 2018 cost an average of US$15 per child per year for an intervention arm that included teacher training, classroom instructional support, learner workbooks, teachers’ guides, and other instructional materials (APHRC 2018).

In contexts of fragility, conflict, and violence, effective pedagogy is even more important to provide structure and build supportive relationships between children and teachers while engaging regularly with parents and caregivers (see box O.3). For example, the Little Ripples program in Chad works with Darfuri refugee teachers in camps to implement a curriculum focused on play-based learning, positive socio-emotional and behavioral management, and a mindfulness component for children and teachers to create a calm space. In the program, children made strong improvements in emergent literacy and number skills while caregivers reported decreases in externalizing behaviors, such as kicking, biting, and hitting, coupled with increases in positive prosocial behaviors (Bouchane et al. 2018).

While building ECE infrastructure, countries with limited quality should prioritize conditioning existing spaces for early learning to be safe, accessible, and stimulating. Children do not require fancy ECE infrastructure or materials to learn, even if they can benefit from it (see box O.4 for a more detailed discussion of technology use in ECE). They need settings that allow for exploration and engagement with others and the surrounding environment, both indoors and outdoors. Countries with higher coverage can prioritize investments to improve existing learning spaces so that they are pedagogically intentional and facilitate children’s learning. The toys and materials in the classroom should be familiar to students and support a culturally relevant and inclusive learning environment (see chapter 4). Cushions, rugs, and mats can all be deployed easily to enable spatial flexibility and support focused behavior—and are all relatively low-cost elements. According to Wright, Mannathoko, and Pasic (2009), the average cost of converting a standard classroom into a