Core Function – Planning and budgeting

System-level ECE capacity

In many countries, there has been a focus on expanding access to pre-primary education without necessarily developing durable structures and capacity for long-term planning and quality enhancement.

Institutional technical capacity is ideally progressively developed to support implementation of the subsector plan

Examples include a robust pre-primary directorate, a training and curriculum authority, independent monitoring and evaluation agencies, a body of advisers (coaches or inspectors) and a monitoring and/or statistical unit with expertise on ECE. Many of these structures are already present in education systems and can be adapted to incorporate specific expertise in early childhood education.

Adequate assessment and deployment of human resources

A strong pre-primary subsector plan identifies national, subnational and local needs for the teachers, supervisors and other ECE personnel who deliver pre-primary services, and assigns these personnel to areas with the greatest need. Credible information about the current and future workforce is crucial as this affects funding requirements as well as planning for workforce development (Core Function 3). Data on current and projected staff turnover, for example, will help establish the need for recruiting, training and retraining, as well as strategies to prevent or mitigate high rates of turnover.

Effective use of physical resources

Infrastructure to house pre-primary services – including buildings, classrooms, water, sanitation and hygiene facilities, and playgrounds – is often costly and requires significant public investment. Equity is always an important consideration, as the poorest areas in a country generally have the most unsafe or unhealthy physical environments for young children. A strong plan is based on a good mapping of existing facilities that can be either repurposed, expanded or improved for pre-primary services. This exercise should take into account the young children’s developmental and educational needs; for example, room to move around freely and spaces for small-group as well as whole-class activities.

Responsiveness of the plan

Because the pre-primary subsector is rapidly growing and changing in many countries, the flexibility and responsiveness of the system to improve service delivery and programme practices is important. This makes it crucial, for example, to gather and analyse data on overall service coverage, changes in supply and demand, and regular identification of areas with the greatest needs.

Planning for play-based learning

Emphasizing learning through play as a teaching methodology for ECE has implications for the subsector’s financial, human and physical resources. Implementing a play-focused vision also requires regulations on class size that take this methodology into account.

Core Function – Curriculum Implementation

Participatory curriculum development and review

The development of relevant, effective pre-primary curricula (or the revision of existing curricula) is ideally accompanied by a broad process of participation across all levels of government and across key stakeholders, including families and communities, to achieve consensus and agree on the curriculum’s desired goals for young children. Many countries experience challenges in gaining support when a new or revised pre-primary curriculum is rolled out. Parents need to be informed about the curriculum’s basic guidelines to be able to hold pre-primary service providers accountable. This is also an opportunity to create greater awareness of the value and objectives of pre-primary education in the community and increase parents’ incentives to send their children to preschool. In some countries, piloting the curriculum on a small scale is useful, both to gain feedback for improvements and to begin to familiarize teachers with new approaches and materials. As expanded roll-out approaches, widespread communication becomes essential, reaching all relevant personnel: government officials, training providers, supervisors, teachers and others, including families and community members. Special attention is needed to ensure that stakeholders in remote areas are not left out of the dissemination and feedback processes.

Policy directives/policy alignment

Curriculum implementation is more likely to be effective if there are clear policy directives from appropriate institutions to ensure that roles and responsibilities are defined – and that they align with the established governance structures. These might include directives about the categories, content and intensity of training needed for future curriculum implementers, or directives that ensure resource allocation for implementation.

Building appropriate technical capacity across the subsector

Along with teachers, curriculum implementation relies on other personnel who understand the curriculum content. This includes government officials, especially at subnational and local levels, supervisors, programme managers, in-service trainers, pre-service teacher educators and current teachers, as well as those preparing to be teachers.

Because many different personnel will be part of the capacity-building, training should be designed for different types of personnel. For example, supervisors and inspectors will need orientation to the curriculum, while teachers and trainers will need more in-depth support. In all cases, it is important that orientation is offered so that expectations are clear.

Supporting curriculum implementation in remote or impoverished locations

Budgeting for teacher training or the provision of age-appropriate books, play materials and other resources is essential if the curriculum is to be implemented consistently for all children, but it is especially important in remote or very poor areas, where local governments may lack sufficient funds to ensure effective implementation of activities. Under these conditions, motivation to implement is often low and the quality of early learning activities may be compromised. Overcoming these challenges requires taking a tailored and localized approach to curriculum implementation, ensuring targeted support for hard to reach areas.

Play-based curriculum

Learning through play with stimulating materials is an essential feature of pre-primary curricula, although specifics will differ across contexts and cultures. Curricula and pedagogy must respond to varying cultural contexts. However, a key principle across all settings is that curricula should be developmentally appropriate. An effective curriculum is well suited to the ages and the developmental, individual and cultural characteristics of children. For pre-primary children, a curriculum that emphasizes exploration and intentional teaching of key content through stimulating interactions and active, playful learning experiences is likely to promote progress across all areas of development and learning.

Core Function – Workforce development

The broad foundation, coherence and continuity in professional development

Given that different institutions and agencies may be responsible for pre-service, in-service and mentoring/supervision activities, it is important to make sure that key competencies are well-defined and reinforced across professional development opportunities. Regular reviews of the workforce’s strengths and areas for development can support coherence and continuity of training, as well as timely responsiveness to the needs and gaps in the skills of the pre-primary workforce. All forms of professional development should emphasize relevance, collaboration and a focus on instructional improvement. Additionally, continuous professional development (CPD) recognizes the importance of a shared understanding by teachers, managers, policymakers and others that quality CPD is an essential element of the pre-primary subsector.

Recognition of diverse contexts

Workforce development programmes should be tailored to local realities, which may include large numbers of teachers living in remote areas with very limited access to training institutions or individual training providers. In-service training can be provided by an external source such as training institutes or colleges, or through staff meetings, workshops, conferences, field-based consultation training and supervised practice. To supplement face-to-face CPD – or provide access to CPD in remote locations – it can be helpful to consider such options as blended learning models and online resources (e.g., ‘good practice’ videos) and the use of free social media applications, such as a mobile texting app used by trainers and colleagues to share ideas and challenges.

Implementing robust workforce development programmes

Sufficient budget allocation is key for the range of activities that are essential to building a pre-primary effective workforce. Among other elements, resources are needed to build the technical capacity of current training entities – such as professional development for trainers, and development of new training materials aligned with new teacher competencies – and to incentivize the recruitment of potential teachers and sustain their participation in the workforce when they are hired. Further, directives from national to subnational levels might also help ensure resource allocations for teachers’ professional development, and for expected priorities or targets for workforce recruitment in underserved areas, including those with large numbers of vulnerable and marginalized children.

Interim strategies to strengthen the workforce

Many countries have wide gaps between the current level of workforce education and training, and what is desired or mandated by policies. As an example, while keeping the acquisition of a full university degree as a long-term goal, interim strategies such as short-term certificate programmes, bridging courses, distance learning and intensive CPD can support the professional advancement of these pre-primary personnel. Such strategies require strong alignment with national professional competency profiles. Directives about recognition of teachers’ prior learning; and realistic timelines for phasing in expected competencies required for different job categories can help support interim arrangements.

Play-based pedagogy

Facilitating meaningful playful experiences and learning opportunities to promote holistic development and school readiness is among the most important competencies for pre-primary personnel. Teachers and early childhood educators are at the heart of delivering quality pre-primary services. Teachers need to understand the importance of play and child-centred pedagogy in early learning, and be equipped with the necessary skills and dispositions to put into action play-based learning. Other education personnel – education inspectors, training providers, specialized staff, and directors and principals – must also be sensitized to and embrace learning through play as an effective tool for supporting learning and child development.

Core Function – Family engagement

Developing an overall strategy

Family and community issues are typically in the scope of work of multiple ministries: for example, the ministries of social welfare and health, as well as the ministry of education. Setting goals and developing an overall strategy needs to be an inclusive and coordinated process, encompassing the relevant ministries and with special attention to the opportunities available to reach families through the pre-primary subsector. Involving stakeholders at all levels (national, subnational and local) when developing a vision for family engagement also makes it more likely that the planned approaches and activities will be relevant and responsive to family and community contexts.

Support and incentives

Pre-primary staff should be given enough time within their responsibilities to participate in the necessary training and to engage in family support activities. It is important for pre-primary staff to be able to communicate well with families about programme goals, as well as the developmental progress of their children and the best way to collaborate with families to achieve these. Families and communities are likely to be more engaged if the system provides some incentives, such as the ability to make decisions or have a say in the services children are receiving.

Diversity of families and communities

Engagement is an important aspect of generating demand for pre-primary education, and strategies for family and community engagement are most successful when there is explicit attention and responsiveness to the diversity of knowledge, beliefs, needs and cultural characteristics in a specific community. To ensure that all families and children feel welcome, it is important to connect with the most disadvantaged and vulnerable families, who often experience barriers to engagement due to socio-economic inequities and cultural and linguistic differences. To fully enhance the learning environment at home and at school, it is also vital for pre-primary programmes to incorporate and build on the ‘funds of knowledge’ that every family possesses with regard to their children.

Family engagement in support of play-based learning

When families are active partners in children’s learning and development, a shared vision for the role of play in pre-primary programs can emerge. Primary caregivers are their children’s first teachers. They should be an integral part of pre-primary programmes because they can contribute and also learn and apply key teaching strategies at home – it is therefore important to support families in becoming equipped and confident to implement play-based learning at home. There are many ways parents can stimulate child development through their nurturing care, conversation and storytelling, and by teaching life skills and providing time and materials for enriched play (e.g., pretending to ‘cook’ rice in a pot). Primary caregivers (and other community members) can also contribute to the curriculum at their children’s ECE setting. The traditional stories, crafts, games and oral histories they share constitute hands-on learning experiences and ensure that the pre-primary setting/ environment is culturally grounded.

Families who understand how much their children are learning through play – at home and in the pre-primary programme – become community advocates. Their outreach to reluctant families may be the most powerful means to ensure that vulnerable children participate in pre-primary education programmes. Change is often thought about in a top-down way: what government sectors or organizations can do for people. However, people at the grassroots can reshape institutions by promoting playful learning. The role of families and communities in supporting learning through play also extends to the primary years to ensure continuity and connectivity of learning across the ages.

Core Function – Quality assurance

Quality standards are not an end in themselves

While quality standards are at the heart of the system, they are not a stand-alone product. To serve their purpose, they need to be founded in clear quality assurance goals, and established mechanisms for ongoing monitoring and quality improvement.

Securing sufficient human resources for quality assurance of the subsector

All staff who may be involved with data collection, monitoring and other elements of quality assurance need to have the requisite expertise and skills to monitor ECE service quality. These relevant personnel include inspectors, teachers, principals/ supervisors, coaches and members of regulatory or accrediting bodies; the skills they require will vary but may include data collection, data analysis, data use and reflection, and design of improvement plans specific to pre-primary education.

If pre-primary inspectors are part of the education system, it is important to make sure that:

• there is a sufficient number of inspectors to visit all programmes on a reasonably frequent schedule;
• inspectors have received training on the unique aspects of early childhood learning;
• and barriers to visiting programmes are addressed, particularly in rural and remote areas, where a differentiated response may help tailor and target resources according to need.

Data to be collected

Different ECE subsector stakeholders need different types of data and information to make appropriate decisions around questions of policy and practice in the subsector. For example:

• At the micro (local) level, data inform operational decisions on pre-primary activities, often at the district and programme levels, e.g., local decisions on the use of resources with intermediate reach.
• At the intermediate (subregional) level, data inform management decisions on the allocation and control of resources and, subsequently, feed into central/national decisions.
• At the macro (central/national) level, data inform strategic planning decisions, such as the vision for pre-primary services, medium- and long-term policy objectives and standards.

One way to help achieve standardization of data collection processes is to coordinate and integrate pre-primary monitoring and quality assurance within existing data platforms and sources, most notably the broader EMIS. To provide a national picture of the quality of the pre-primary subsector, a subset of indicators can be established and regularly submitted into existing data collection systems such as the EMIS. This can be used as a foundation for making improvements at all levels.

Quality assurance strategy and vision

The development and implementation of a quality assurance system takes time and resources, as well as systematic and sustained engagement. This is possible when the quality assurance system is institutionalized within the government system as a core practice. The quality assurance units of the ministry of education, national quality agencies/ councils and accreditation bodies are well-positioned to support the tasks of the quality assurance system. Some countries may also have dedicated central ECE agencies or councils that can participate in the mandate of quality assurance.

Play as a central element of defining quality

Play should be a central element of defining ECE quality. Because play-based learning is an essential component of quality ECE programmes, it is important to include play-related components as part of monitoring tools and quality standards. Even if ‘play’ is mentioned in an ECE vision statement or curriculum, if it is not clearly present in standards for implementation, then its impact is lost.