Ensure that the following elements are identified.

1. ECE goals, strategies and their related activities;
2. Time period (i.e., the timing of each activity);
3. Quantity of inputs for each activity;
4. Quantity of outputs and the unit costs;
5. Overall cost of the activity;
6. Sources of funding for each activity (this could be the central government, local government, development partners, NGO, CBOs, grants, loans, etc.);
7. Entity responsible for implementation for each activity; and
8. Targets/output indicator for each activity.

Follow the operational plan template that is provided (generally, the broader sector-wide Education Sector Plan development process will identify a template to use) to organize the information. This template should ideally be followed to develop annual action plans (if applicable).

1. As mentioned, there is no prescribed format for the operational plan. However, the key elements should be reflected. Below is an example from Ghana’s Kindergarten Operational Plan. Additional examples of operational plans for ECE (excerpts) are provided in Annex 1 of this tool.
2. Annex 2 of MOOC Module 5 provides a template of an annual action plan.

If a separate ECE subsector action plan is developed (drawn from or to inform the sector-wide operational plan), it may be helpful to link/reference each activity in the ECE action plan to its corresponding number/location in the sector-wide operational plan.

Consider the following questions when calculating the unit cost for each activity:

• What is the cost of each input? A cost matrix may be developed to facilitate this calculation. For an example of a cost matrix, see “Ghana’s example (unit cost matrix)” in the Additional Resources of Tool 2.3.
• Are there available market rates that can be referred to for costing? For example, there might be a market rate for printing of documents, or for meeting venues in a particular region/city.
• Are there recurrent costs? These refer to items that occur regularly and continuously every year, which are used (consumed) the same year, and which cannot be used again the following year (i.e., teachers’ salaries, ancillary services, teaching and learning materials used within a year).
• Are there capital costs? Include items which occur only once, or from time to time, but not regularly every year, and not continuously, such as infrastructure (I.e. construction or repairs, furniture, purchase of other heavy equipment) and expenditure the benefit of which lasts over a number of years (investments).
• Are there marginal costs? Are there costs associated with activities that may lead to increase in access or demand of a particular service? For example, parenting support groups or community mobilization campaigns may lead to an increased demand for ECE in a given geographic area where there was historically limited t demand, or no demand, for preschool from families and communities. It is important to factor in the cost related to including additional students based on the transformative shift that community mobilization campaigns may lead to. For example:
  • Let’s say that there are 25,000 learners in ECE and that the unit cost for those learners has been budgeted for. Prior to the start of the school year, there are plans to conduct awareness and information campaigns to increase enrollment.
  • Based on the planned awareness and information campaign, the budget should consider a possible increase in the number of ECE learners. With the possible increase, the overall number of students should be increased and not be limited to 25,000. The marginal cost associated with this potential increase in the number of ECE learners should be considered in the cost calculation and budget.

Ensure that the cost of all activities is within the overall envelope of resources identified in the education sector plan (using the ministry of finance budget ceilings and confirmed development partner inputs).

For example, the government’s budget framework may operate an annual ceiling budget framework or a medium-term budget framework over three years. Within this budget framework, it is important to ensure that the cost for the activities that are identified for each year is within the limit of the government’s and partner’s allocations for the given year.

It is important to keep an eye on the economy and national wealth, government revenue capacity and consistency, consistent/incremental allocation to the Education Sector and the ECE subsector as well as consistency in development partners’ financial contributions based on commitments. For example, the COVID-19 pandemic has contributed to global economic difficulties, which may lead to a decrease of partner funding to the Education Sector.

For the annual action plan, consider whether the ECE budget envelope and/or human resources for the subsector has changed from year to year. Sometimes, personnel shifts can take place which might affect implementation. Additionally, some committed funding may elapse, and this might create implementation bottlenecks.

For example, let’s suppose that a country’s ECE budget envelope over a three-year period decreases significantly (from $10,000,000 in Year 1 to $5,000,000 in Year 2 and to $1,500,000 in Year 3). These changes will impact how activities are planned and implemented – such as earmarking funds for more costly activities across the three years – principally in the first two years – to the extent possible.

• Example 1: If you plan to revise the ECE curriculum or develop new quality standards emphasizing learning through play, inclusion, gender-responsiveness, and crisis-preparedness, this will require subsequent dissemination, teacher training, and implementation monitoring activities. The most expensive activities will likely be the printing, distribution costs, training-related, and implementation monitoring costs. Ideally, a consultative curriculum revision or development process and printing/distribution would happen in Year 1 with training in Year 2 and monitoring/follow-up on implementation of the revised curriculum in Year 3.

• Example 2: If you will expand equitable access to ECE through a one-year school readiness program, targeting the most marginalized and vulnerable groups may be more costly and require pre-positioning specific materials and expertise, such as supplies for temporary learning spaces in refugee camps; assessments, teaching and learning materials, and assistive devices for children with disabilities; and constructing additional annexed classrooms in primary schools or maintenance costs for alternative, community-based ECE locations to offer the program. The costs for procuring these materials and construction activities could be planned for Years 1 and 2 with distribution and the start of the program in Year 3.

• Example 3: If community-based ECE teachers not currently on the government payroll are planned to be absorbed by the system through the provision of incentive (not full government salary) based on a qualifications scale to expand the ECE workforce, these incentive costs will need to remain constant across the three years despite the decrease in budget.