The Critical Importance of Foundational Pre-School Education:

An Economic Analysis

Early Childhood Education Global Conference: ECE: Opportunities and Challenges

Grand Hyatt Hotel, Santa Cruz, Mumbai17 July 2010

Professor Jeremy B WilliamsChief Academic Officer

Knowledge Universe Education

SC

SR

A B C

Years in education

Social Costs/Returns

ECE/K-8 9-12 Post-Sec Life-long learning

The standard economic analysis of the net benefits to society of education

Recent brain development research has upset mainstream thinking …

The human brain and critical periods for learning in a person’s development

John Abbott, President of The 21st Century Learning Initiative www.21learn.org

The link between social and emotional development and cognitive development

“ …When it comes to brain circuitry, it’s better to get it right the first time, than to try and fix it later.”

Professor Jack P. Shonkoff, M.D.Harvard University

A speech from a little knownUS Senator in 2006 …

The economicdebate is over

J.J. Heckman (2000)‘Policies to foster human capital’, Research in Economics, 54(1), 3-56.

Professor James Heckman

Returns per dollar invested

Rate of Return: Why Early Investment Matters

Professor W. Steven Barnett Director of the National Institute

for Early Education Research (NIEER) at Rutgers University

What Barnett (2008) tells us …

High rates of return

• Comparing the costs of public investment in ECE against a variety of benefits:

higher achievement test scores, lower rates of grade repetition and special education, and higher educational attainment

higher earnings and resulting higher tax revenues

increased labour-force participation of parents

lower risks of delinquency, crime and teenage pregnancy

Early skills: Importance of soft skills

Change the early years. Change life.

• The 2008 EFA Global Monitoring Report stated that only 53% of the world’s countries have ECE programmes for children under 3

• These are mostly in North America and Western Europe, Central Asia, and Latin America and the Caribbean

So what about India? …

• Population: 1.17 billion; 1.38% p.a.

• Per capita income: US$1089 (US$4542 in PPP)

• 50% of the population is below 25 years

• 360 million children of school-going age

• The largest child population in the world

• Projected global teacher shortage by 2015 … 18 million

• India will need the greatest inflow of new teachers in the world – more than 20 lakh

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India ranks 105th out of 128 on the EFA Development Index

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3.4% of children aged 2-4 yrs are in pre-school (cf. 14.4% in the US)

361 million should be in school

219 million are in school

Drop-out rates …

Grades 1-4: 16% (25m)

Grades 5-8: 43% (39m)

Grades 9-12: 68% (78m)

What does a strategicapproach to ECElook like? …

1. Proven effectiveness

Using ‘available funds wisely’ (Heckman 2000), policy makers will be focusing on replicating ECE models that have proven their effectiveness.

Typically these models have relatively small class sizes and well-educated teachers with adequate remuneration

2. Quality assurance

Teachers in these model ECE programmes (whether public or private) will be receiving intensive supervision and mentoring

They will be involved in a continuous improvement process for learning and teaching

3. Regular review

These ECE programmes will be regularly assessing a child’s learning and development to monitor the extent to which they are meeting their institutional goals

4. Holistic approach

ECE programmes will embrace a pedagogy that develops the whole child (including social and emotional development and self-regulation)

This will help to produce positive effects on children’s behaviour, which leads to later reductions in crime and delinquency.

5. Public policy

More broadly, ECE policy needs to be developed within the context of comprehensive public policy to support child development from birth to age 5 and beyond

With priority for socioeconomically disadvantaged children who are likely to benefit most.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/alokputul/http://www.flickr.com/photos/happyhorizons/

Source for India data

Heckman [1]: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=teMx2e-PA0U&feature=related Heckman [2]: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=leA7EDrPLi4&feature=related Abbott: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCHsBk3edvg&NR=1 Obama: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkWbu54LJ_8&feature=channel Harvard Education: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLiP4b-TPCA&feature=related theounceofprevention: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GbSp88PBe9E&feature=PlayList&p=C41F8076EF5B47B2&playnext_from=PL&index=4&playnext=1

Ms Kirtana Hariharan, Research Analyst, Knowledge Universe Education

Credits …

Thank you for listening

This presentation is available at: www.jeremybwilliams.net/jbw/Presentations.html

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