Report No: AUS0001357 THE LANDSCAPE OF EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION IN BANGLADESH SCHOOL World Bank Office Dhaka Plot- E-32, Agargaon, Sher-e-Bangla Nagar, Dhaka-1207 Bangladesh Tel: 880-2-5566-7777 Fax: 880-2-5566-7778 www.worldbank.org/bangladesh © 2017 The World Bank 1818 H Street NW, Washington DC 20433 Telephone: 202-473-1000; Internet: www.worldbank.org Some rights reserved This work is a product of the staff of The World Bank. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this work do not necessarily reflect the views of the Executive Directors of The World Bank or the governments they represent. The World Bank does not guarantee the accuracy of the data included in this work. The boundaries, colors, denominations, and other information shown on any map in this work do not imply any judgment on the part of The World Bank concerning the legal status of any territory or the endorsement or acceptance of such boundaries. Rights and Permissions The material in this work is subject to copyright. Because The World Bank encourages dissemination of its knowledge, this work may be reproduced, in whole or in part, for noncommercial purposes as long as full attribution to this work is given. Attribution Please cite the work as follows: “World Bank. 2020. The Landscape of Early Childhood Education in Bangladesh © World Bank.” All queries on rights and licenses, including subsidiary rights, should be addressed to World Bank Publications, The World Bank Group, 1818 H Street NW, Washington, DC 20433, USA; fax: 202-522-2625; e-mail: pubrights@worldbank.org. Graphics and layout design : Shahriar THE LANDSCAPE OF EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION IN BANGLADESH Saurav Dev Bhatta, Tashmina Rahman, Md. Naibur Rahman, Uttam Sharma and Lindsay Adams February 12, 2020 Education Global Practice South Asia Region ACKNOWLEDGEMENT This report was authored by a team comprised of Saurav Dev Bhatta (Senior Economist, Task Team Leader), Tashmina Rahman (Education Specialist, Co-Task Team Leader), Uttam Sharma (Education Consultant), Md. Naibur Rahman (Education Consultant), and Lindsay Adams (ECD Consultant). It was prepared under the guidance of Mercy M. Tembon (Country Director) and Cristian Aedo (Practice Manager). The peer reviewers were Sangeeta Dey (Senior Education Specialist and SAR Early Childhood Development Focal Person), Mari Shojo (Senior Education Specialist) and Adelle Pushparatnam (Young Professional). The team would like to give special thanks to the peer reviewers for their insightful review and thoughtful comments. The report also benefitted from useful inputs and feedback from other World Bank colleagues, including Dandan Chen (Operations Manager), Tekabe Ayalew Belay (HD Program Leader), Amanda Devercelli (Global Lead for ECD), and Deepika Nayar Chaudhury (Senior Health, Nutrition & Population Specialist). The team would also like to thank colleagues from the Directorate of Primary Education, UNICEF, BRAC and Save the Children for their valuable inputs. Finally, we would like to acknowledge the financial support from the Early Learning Partnership Mutli- Donor Trust Fund, which partially funded this study. | ii ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS APSC Annual Primary School Census IDELA International Development and Early Learning Assessment AUEO Assistant Upazila Education Officer M&E Monitoring and Evaluation BEN Bangladesh ECD Network MICS Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey BRAC Building Resources Across Communities MoE Ministry of Education BSA Bangladesh Shishu Academy MoPME Ministry of Primary and Mass Education CAIF Centros de Atención Integral Familiar MoWCA Ministry of Women and Children’s Affairs CECCDP Comprehensive Early Childhood Care and Development Policy NAPE National Academy for Primary Education CMC Center Management Committee NCTB National Curriculum and Textbook Board CPECCD Comprehensive Policy for Early Child Care and NEP National Education Policy Development NGO Nongovernmental Organization CSR Corporate Social Responsibility NNGPS Newly Nationalized Government Primary School CWP Community Work Program OLS Ordinary Least Square DPE Directorate of Primary Education PEDP Primary Education Development Program DPEO District Primary Education Office PEDP3 Third Primary Education Development Program ECCD Early Child Care and Development PEDP4 Fourth Primary Education Development Program ECD Early Childhood Development PEVS Primary Education Voucher Scheme ECDI Early Childhood Development Index PPE Preprimary Education ECE Early Childhood Education PTI Primary Teacher Training Institute ELDS Early Learning Development Standards RNGPS Registered Nongovernment Primary School EPWP Expended Public Work Program SABER Systems Approach for Better Education Results EYPP Early Years Primary Program SCI Save the Children International FINEEC Finnish Education Evaluation Center SCR Student-Classroom Ratio GDP Gross Domestic Product STR Student-Teacher Ratio GER Gross Enrollment Rate TLM Teaching-Learning Material GNI Gross National Income UEO Upazila Education Officer GoB Government of Bangladesh UIS UNESCO Institute for Statistics GPS Government Primary School URC Upazila Resource Center HIES Household Income and Expenditure Survey | iii CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ii ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS iii LIST OF FIGURES vi LIST OF TABLES vii CHAPTER 4 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ix GOVERNANCE AND MANAGEMENT OF ECE IN BANGLADESH 45 4.1 Current ECE Policies and Government Programs 45 CHAPTER 1 4.2 Key Issues in Governance and INTRODUCTION 1 Management of ECE 49 1.1 Background 1 4.3 SABER-ECD Analysis of Bangladesh’s ECE System 53 1.2 Study Objectives and Approach 2 4.4 Policy Options 56 1.3 Study Methodology and Report Structure 3 CHAPTER 5 CHAPTER 2 FINANCING EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION IN BANGLADESH 59 ACCESS AND EQUITY IN EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION IN 5.1 Public Financing of ECE in Bangladesh 60 BANGLADESH 5 5.2 Private (household) Spending on ECE 65 2.1 Status of ECE Provision in Bangladesh 5 5.3 Policy Options 68 2.2 Key Issues in Equitable Access to ECE in Bangladesh 15 2.3 Determinants of ECE Attendance 19 2.4 Policy Options 22 REFERENCES 71 ANNEX 75 Annex 1: Marginal Effects of Probit Estimates for Enrollment in ECE and Age-Appropriate Enrollments in ECE for 2010 76 CHAPTER 3 Annex 2: Early Learning Development QUALITY OF ECE IN BANGLADESH 25 Standards (ELDS) 77 3.1 Framework for ECE Quality 25 Annex 3: Requirements for PPE classroom 79 3.2 Quality of Inputs 27 Annex 4: Overview on IDELA 80 3.3 Quality of Outcomes 34 Annex 5: Organogram for PPE in MoPME 82 3.4 Policy Options 42 Annex 6: Organogram for ECD in MoWCA 83 Annex 7: Public Spending on ECE in Lower and Upper-Middle-Income Countries 84 List of Figures Framework for ECE 2 Figure 1: Figure 2: Proportion of preprimary enrollments by type of provider, 2017 (in percentage) 6 Figure 3: Preprimary GER for children ages 3–5 in relation to GNI per capita (2017) 7 Figure 4: Preprimary enrollments in all school types in Bangladesh (in millions) 8 Figure 5: Share of children aged 5, 6, and 5–12 years either attending preschool, other grades, or not currently enrolled in school, 2012–13 8 Figure 6: Proportion of children aged 3–4 years attending ECE program, 2012–13 9 Figure 7: Share of children aged 5, 6, and 5–12 years old who either attend preschool, other grades, or not currently enrolled in school 9 Figure 8: Distribution of preschool enrollments by gender (left) and age (right), 2012–13 10 Figure 9: Distribution of preschool enrollments by gender (left) and age (right), 2010 and 2017 11 Figure 10: Distribution of preschool enrollments by wealth (left) and location (right), 2012–13 12 Figure 11: Distribution of preschool enrollments across income quintiles (left) and location (right); 2010 and 2016–17 13 Figure 12: Share of children of aged 3, 4, 5, and 3–5 years not enrolled in preschool, 2012–13 14 Figure 13: Share of 5-year-old children not enrolled in preschool by gender (%), 2010 and2017 14 Figure 14: Share of children aged 3, 4, 5, and 3–5 years not enrolled in preschool (%), 2012–13 15 Figure 15: Share of 5-year-old children not enrolled in preschool, 2010 and 2017 15 Figure 16: Share of children attending preschool, 2012–13 (%) 16 Figure 17: Share of 5-year-olds attending preschool and other grades by income quintiles, (%) 16 Figure 18: Share of children attending preschool by gender, 2012–2013 (%) 17 Figure 19: Share of 5-year-old children by status of enrollment and gender (%), 2010 and 2016–17 17 Figure 20: Share of 4-year-old children attending ECE by area (left), by major division (right), and by district (below) (%), 2012–13 18 Figure 21: Share of 5-year-old children attending preschool by area (left), by major division (right), and by district (below) (%), 2012–13 18 Figure 22: Share of 5-year-old children attending preschool, 2010 and 2016–17, (%) 19 Framework for ECE Quality 26 Figure 23: Figure 24: Average student-teacher ratio (STR) in preprimary schools in Bangladesh; 2017 29 Figure 25: Average student-classroom ratio (SCR) in preprimary schools in Bangladesh, 2017 29 Figure 26: Share of preprimary teachers by education qualification in 2017 (%) 30 Figure 27: Flowchart on training plan implementation 31 Figure 28: Child development outcomes across domains (ECDI scores) 34 Figure 29: Share of 3- to 4-year-olds children developmentally on track by division 35 Figure 30: Child development outcomes across domains, 2012–13 36 Figure 31: Child development outcomes across domains, 2012–13 36 Figure 32: Child development outcomes across domains by ECE attendance 37 Figure 33: Child development outcomes across domains, 2018 39 Figure 34: Child development outcomes across domains by EYPP participation, 2018 40 | vi Figure 35: Share of children developmentally on track across IDELA domains (%) 41 Figure 36: Share of children developmentally on track by socioeconomic factors and ECE attendance (%) 41 Figure 37: Key actors in Preprimary and ECCD in Bangladesh 49 Figure 38: Levels of development of Bangladesh’s ECE policies for an enabling environment 55 Figure 39: Levels of development of Bangladesh’s ECE policies for Implementing Widely 55 Figure 40: Levels of development of Bangladesh’s ECE policies for Monitoring and Assuring Quality 56 Figure 41: ECE budget as a share of total GoB budget and MoPME budget (2012/13–2016/17) 60 Figure 42: ECE budget growth in nominal and real terms (US$, millions), 2012/13–2016/17 61 Figure 43: Public spending on ECE in middle-income countries in 2014 (% of GDP) 62 Figure 44: Public spending on ECE in South Asian countries, 2014 63 PPE Expenditure under PEDP3, 2011–2015 63 Figure 45: ECE budget utilization, 2012/13–2016/17 64 Figure 46: Figure 47: Average per child expenditure on ECE 2010 and 2016 65 Figure 48: Household ECE expenditure and per child ECE household expenditure, 2010 and 2016 65 Figure 49: ECE annual household expenditure and per child household expenditure by quintile, 2016 66 Figure 50: ECE annual household expenditure and per child household expenditure across geographical areas, 2016 66 Figure 51: ECE annual household expenditure and per child household expenditure across geographical areas, 2016 67 Figure 52: Share of public expenditure in ECE expenditure by quintile, 2016 87 List of Tables Table 1: Number of preprimary institutions and student enrollments, 2014 and 2018 5 Table 2: GER for PPE in Bangladesh (%) 7 Table 3: Descriptive statistics on factors affecting school attendance for children age 5 by enrollment status, 2016–17 20 Table 4: Marginal effects of probit estimates for enrollment in ECE and age-appropriate enrollments in ECE for 2016 21 Table 5: Share of PPE teachers with various professional development trainings (%) 30 Table 6: Share of children developmentally on track by location, gender, wealth, and ECE attendance (in %) 35 Table 7: Factors affecting likelihood of child being developmentally on track 37 Table 8: Average IDELA score (out of total of 100) by socioeconomic factors, 2018 38 Table 9: Average IDELA score across the six domains, 2018 39 Table 10: Factors affecting total child development scores 40 Table 11: Factors affecting total child development scores 42 Table 12: Analyzing the development of Bangladesh’s ECE policies 54 Table 13: Share of ECE budget in total budget, MoPME budget, and GDP (2012/13–2016/17) 60 Table 14: Per child public expenditure on ECE, 2013/14–2016/17 61 Table 15: ECE budget and expenditure (US$, millions), 2012–13 64 Table 16: ECE expenditure per child, including and excluding public spending, 2016 68 | vii | viii EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Early childhood education (ECE) is critical for improving child development outcomes and ensuring that the next generation of Bangladeshi children is better prepared for school. Bangladesh has made remarkable progress in increasing access to school education and ensuring that more children complete school. However, it is estimated that while Bangladeshi children complete 11 years of schooling on average, their learning-adjusted years of schooling is only 6.5 years (World Bank 2018). Deficiencies in learning in the lower grades affect students’ future learning potential and skills development, and subsequently hamper their performance in the job market. Inadequate student readiness at primary school entry is a key factor behind the poor learning outcomes in primary school and beyond. Hence, investing adequately in ECE to improve the school readiness of children needs to be a priority for Bangladesh. This report reviews the landscape of the ECE system in Bangladesh, focusing on the following key aspects related to the provision of ECE services: (a) access and equity, (b) quality, (c) governance and management, and (d) financing. It is based primarily on a desk review of existing documents and literature on ECE, and quantitative analyses of existing survey data. The desk review focuses on policies, plans, and strategies; existing studies; and pertinent records related to ECE in Bangladesh. The quantitative analyses are based on data from two rounds of the Household Income and Expenditure Survey (HIES 2010, 2016–17); the Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS 2013); survey data from an ongoing impact evaluation of a small-scale ECE intervention in one district of the country; and administrative data from the Directorate of Primary Education (DPE). In addition, the study also uses some primary data collected using the World Bank’s Systems Approach for Better Education Results (SABER) tool to analyze the governance and management status of ECE in Bangladesh. | ix MAIN FINDINGS AND POLICY DIRECTIONS Access and Equity Key Findings Preprimary enrollment has improved substantially There are notable disparities in access to ECE across over the past few years through a combination of socioeconomic groups and geographic areas. Around public and non-state providers. The gross enrollment 53 percent of 5-year-olds enrolled in ECE were male rate (GER) in preprimary education (PPE) increased from compared to 47 percent of females in 2017. Preschool 24.7 percent in 2011 to 40.3 percent in 2017. The number participation tends to be much higher for children from of institutions offering PPE also increased during this well-off families compared to children from poorer period, with public provision accounting for almost half households. Among 5-year-old children, the disparity in of all enrollments in 2017. While access to PPE has been access between children from the poorest and richest improving over the years, Bangladesh remains a below- families has declined, but a significantly larger share of average performer among the countries in South Asia and children from poorer families are not enrolled in preschool a low performer compared to upper-middle-income and or remain out of school. According to the most recent HIES high-income countries in terms of GER. 2016–17, around 30 percent of 5-year-old children from the poorest families were enrolled in preschool compared The preschool student population in the country to 40.4 percent from the richest families in 2017. There are includes a sizeable share of overaged male children also notable disparities in access across geographic areas: although age-appropriate enrollment has improved children from rural areas are less likely to be enrolled in over the years. Among those enrolled in preschool, the preprimary classes and there are significant differences majority of the children aged 5 to 12 years continue to in PPE enrollment rates across districts. Children with be male, although the gender balance shifted slightly in physical and/or cognitive disabilities constitute another favor of females among enrolled 5-year-olds between category of targeted beneficiaries with low access to ECE. 2010 and 2017. Among children age 5, the share enrolled An analysis of available data shows that a child with a in preschool nearly doubled between 2010 and 2017, from disability is 54 percent more likely not to be enrolled in 17 percent to around 33 percent. The share of 6-year-olds preschool compared to a child with no disability, holding who attended preschool also increased but at a lower rate other factors constant. compared to 5-year-olds. | x Policy Options Place special emphasis on children from sector already accounts for a major share of preprimary socioeconomically disadvantaged families and enrollment in Bangladesh. Hence, the government may children from rural areas when undertaking consider subsidy programs and matching grant schemes interventions aimed at improving access to ECE. to help non-state actors1 expand the provision of ECE in Poverty-targeted stipends in the form of conditional underserved areas. cash transfers could potentially be a good approach to Implement mass communication programs aimed increasing demand for and improving access to ECE for at raising parental and community awareness of children from the poorest families. Additionally, a needs the importance of ECE to ensure that children of assessment for increasing access to ECE for children with appropriate age enroll in ECE programs. These disabilities and the development of a plan to facilitate campaigns would help raise awareness among parents their access to appropriate early learning programs on the importance of social interactions and play in would be critical. developing children’s cognitive and socioemotional Promote public-private partnerships to increase skills and on the value added to their children’s holistic the provision of ECE in rural and remote areas, development by giving them early exposure to quality where public provision is low. The nongovernment ECE programs. Quality of ECE Key Findings Bangladesh has developed a national curriculum global standards. Teaching quality, especially when for PPE and is working to further improve its dealing with younger children, is closely linked with quality through an upgradation that follows child STR and SCR. In PPE programs with large classrooms, development standards. The one-year PPE program opportunities for effective teacher-child relationships currently being implemented in government schools are reduced and teacher stress may increase, which mainly takes an academic approach, while international in turn can adversely affect teaching quality and child evidence suggests that a play-based approach leads development (Barnett et al. 2004; Morgan 2019). to better child development outcomes. This is likely There is a shortage of qualified PPE teachers in GPSs. the result of a cultural mindset among most parents Around 22 percent of GPSs with PPE classes are operating and teachers that schooling in general, including without a dedicated and trained preprimary teacher preschool, should focus on developing a child’s (APSC 2018). As more schools become nationalized and academic skills. Furthermore, adequate availability offer preprimary classes, the teacher shortage crisis of quality supplementary teaching-learning materials can be expected to intensify. Moreover, delays in the (TLMs), including play materials, remains a challenge implementation of teacher training programs have left a in government primary schools (GPSs), limiting sizeable number of teachers (around 5,000) without PPE opportunities for joyful learning among preschoolers. training. Additionally, the government’s plans to expand Other key input indicators such as student-teacher PPE to two years will require a significant increase in the ratio (STR) and student-classroom ratio (SCR) show number of preprimary teachers and training provision. that Bangladesh has a long way to go in meeting 1 Non-state actors account for nearly half of all ECE provision, with some NGOs and community-based learning | xi In terms of child development outcomes, which development, whereby a child is 37 percent more likely are an indicator of the quality of early childhood to be developmentally on track if attending preschool, development (ECD) programs, only around 65 holding other factors constant. Child development percent of assessed 3- and 4-year-old children were assessment data from an ongoing impact evaluation developmentally on track in 2012–13 according to of a small-scale ECE program in the Meherpur district the MICS 2012–13.2 Specifically, only one out of five of Bangladesh also show that children enrolled in PPE children aged 3–4 years was developmentally on track have much higher child development outcome scores on literacy-numeracy skills, which is closely linked with than those who do not attend any preschool program. preschool attendance. Children from poor families and While the government has made some progress in those living in rural areas were also less likely to be PPE monitoring, there is a need to further strengthen developmentally on track. Regression analyses show quality assurance at all levels. The Ministry of Primary that a child’s probability of being developmentally on and Mass Education (MoPME) has established classroom track significantly increases with household wealth—a standards for PPE provision and also adopted a child child from the richest wealth quintile is 29 percent more development checklist. However, there is yet to be a likely to be developmentally on track compared to a review on the use of these standards, and national- child from the poorest quintile. level assessments of child development outcomes have Children who were attending early childhood never been done. Moreover, private ECD centers remain programs were found to be more likely to be largely outside the scope of national monitoring and developmentally on track in 2012–13. Participation in quality assurance efforts. ECE has a statistically significant positive effect on child Policy Options Ensure adequate provision of teaching, learning, assessment of new skills and training needs) for the and play materials and effective utilization of these additional year of ECE targeting 4-year-olds. Ensuring the items in the classroom. This will also require that timely delivery of training for these additional teachers the budget allocated for teaching, learning, and play will require upgrading the teacher training centers, materials is appropriately used by the recipient schools. such as the Primary Teacher Training Institutes (PTIs) Moreover, the government may also consider support to and Upazila Resource Centers (URCs), to make them low-resourced private and religious ECD centers in areas well resourced, with an adequate number of qualified where government ECE provision is limited, either by instructors and appropriate facilities. directly providing them with materials or by providing Establish a robust system to monitor and evaluate funds to acquire materials. the performance of the ECE system in compliance Expediate and complete the recruitment and training with official standards. This should also include of preprimary teachers in government schools to national-level tracking of child development outcomes. improve the quality of learning. Furthermore, in light A quality assurance mechanism that covers both public of plans to expand PPE to two years, MoPME also needs and private provision of ECE needs to be developed and to conduct a teacher needs assessment (including an implemented. 2 Developmentally on track follows the Early Childhood Development Index (ECDI) of the MICS 2012–13. It is acknowledged that though the MICS provides data from six years ago, a recent evaluation of child development outcomes for preschool attendance shows similar results. This is discussed in detail in Chapter 3. | xii Governance and Management of ECE Key Findings The provision of ECD programs involves several constraints at PTIs and URCs further impede effective government agencies, but there is little coordination and timely training of preschool teachers. between actors engaged in PPE and those working While the government has developed some M&E in other ECD areas.3 While the Ministry of Women and tools, including quality standards for PPE provision Children’s Affairs (MoWCA) is the lead coordination and and child development outcomes, system-level supervision body for ECD for children aged 0 to 8 years, quality assurance remains weak. The monitoring and MoPME is the apex entity overseeing the provision of compliance mechanisms for ECE centers are weak or PPE. The DPE, under MoPME, is the responsible agency inconsistently enforced, making it difficult to determine for the implementation of PPE. Several other ministries the level of compliance with standards. Non-state and government agencies4 also have responsibilities provision, as mentioned earlier, remains largely out of for ECD. Moreover, non-state actors in Bangladesh have government oversight. been playing a long-standing role in providing ECD. However, coordination between the PPE actors and the The results of a SABER-ECD analysis of the ECE policy rest of the major ECD actors remains weak. environment show mixed progress. The analysis shows that while the system has done relatively well The current human resource management system is in establishing an enabling environment for ECE at the not responding adequately to address the chronic policy level, it is at a latent stage in terms of establishing shortage of qualified preprimary teachers. The current a sound monitoring and quality assurance system. It long-winded PPE teacher recruitment process for GPSs is viewed as being in an emerging stage in terms of and limited professional development opportunities for achieving the policy goal of implementing ECE widely. PPE teachers are not conducive to ensuring that talent is attracted and retained. Moreover, resource and capacity Policy Options Further clarify the respective roles and and share the findings with all stakeholders to identify responsibilities of MoPME and MoWCA with regard to future joint initiatives. PPE. The government needs to clarify which of these two Ensure that the human resource management policy ministries should coordinate and lead efforts focused on and procedures are adequate to attract, develop, the delivery of integrated ECE services and allocate the and retain qualified teachers for ECE. In particular, necessary funds to the lead ministry to coordinate cross- there is a need to review the preprimary teacher ministry collaboration in this area. As an initial step in this professional development opportunities with a focus direction, it will be useful to conduct a comprehensive on incorporating specialized aspects of ECE and child mapping of ECD activities across the relevant ministries 3 According to the World Health Organization, ECD refers to the physical, cognitive, linguistic, and socioemotional development of a child from the prenatal stage up to age 8. ECE, a subset of ECD, is a broad term used to describe any type of educational program that serves children in their preschool years, before they are old enough to start primary school. In the context of Bangladesh, preprimary education is one form of ECE, which according to its National Education Policy 2010 (NEP 2010) is meant to focus on children in the 4–5 year age group. 4 These include the Ministry of Cultural Affairs, Ministry of Social Welfare, the Ministry of Chittagong Hill Tracts Affairs, the Ministry of Religious Affairs, the Ministry of Food, Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief, the Ministry of Information, the Ministry of Youth and Sports, the Ministry of Labor and Employment, and the Ministry of Home Affairs. | xiii development. There is also a need to address the lack and private PPE provision. Building on the progress of qualified and experienced preprimary educators who made in developing quality standards for PPE, the could serve as teacher trainers and teacher mentors. government needs to take the next step to ensure that these standards are consistently applied. In addition, Introduce and implement a quality assurance data on child development outcomes need to be mechanism that is implemented widely through a collected and used as a key part of an M&E system to regulatory framework encompassing both public track system performance and inform future reforms. Financing in ECE Key Findings Public spending on ECE in Bangladesh remains low such as religious organizations and nongovernmental by international standards even though there has organizations (NGOs), others rely on student fees to pay been a steady increase in the ECE budget in recent for their services. Families spend a substantial share of years. Public spending on ECE in Bangladesh is only their household resources on ECE. According to the HIES 0.02 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), much 2016 data, around 3.8 percent of households incurred lower than the figures for most lower-middle-income ECE expenditures and these households devoted 3.3 countries, which typically spend over 0.12 percent of percent of their total consumption to ECE. the GDP on ECE. Furthermore, the country lags behind Poorer households have substantially lower private in terms of per child expenditure on ECE—for example, spending on ECE than richer households. In 2016, while the average per child ECE expenditures of low- the average annual ECE spending for households in the income and lower-middle-income countries were richest consumption quintile was more than seven times US$123 and US$242, respectively, in 2012 (Wils 2015), higher than the average ECE spending for households Bangladesh spent only US$3.67 per child in 2013–14.5 The in the poorest quintile. Rural areas lag behind urban major share of public budget goes to teachers’ salaries, areas significantly in terms of total as well as per child leaving limited funds for development investments. household spending on ECE. The number of children enrolled in ECE programs As public spending has a larger importance for is expected to increase substantially in the coming poorer children, increase in public spending can help years, which will require increased financial reduce the ECE spending gap between poor and rich resources and service delivery capacity. With two households. About 49.7 percent of the ECE expenditures years of PPE anticipated, public investments, especially of the average household in the poorest quintile came in ECE quality enhancement activities, will need to from public resources compared to 12.8 percent for increase substantially. a household from the richest quintile, indicating that A large share of ECE services in Bangladesh is benefits from public spending are more important for privately financed. Non-state institutions comprise poorer households. The contribution of public spending around 41 percent of the institutions providing ECE. in reducing the spending gap between the rich and poor While some of these institutions are subsidized by households is quite substantial. funds from donors and different nonprofit entities, 5 While the Wils paper uses cost-based approach in estimating the average per child ECE expenditures, the figure for Bangladesh uses aggregate PPE budget allocation. | xiv Policy Options Given the vast amount of investment needed Explore different public-private partnership models of for universalizing ECE, explore different options service delivery to expand the reach of ECE programs. for mobilizing funds to support ECE expansion. While one of year of PPE is an integral part of public primary When it comes to public financing, some cost sharing schools, the reach of public PPE programs is currently between the central and local governments could limited by the geographical distribution of primary schools, be an approach to mobilizing extra resources for especially in rural areas. An effective combination of public ECE. Other innovative approaches used in different and private financing can, therefore, help expand access countries to raise funds from the private sector to to ECE as well as enhance equity in access. In particular, support ECE could also be considered, including Bangladesh can benefit by exploring models of public sin taxes, social impact bonds, payroll taxes, and financing and private delivery of ECE services such as block resources allocated by private firms to fulfil their grants, per child payments, subsidies to low-income families corporate social responsibilities. paid directly to ECE providers, and school vouchers. | xv | xvi 1 Chapter INTRODUCTION 1.1 BACKGROUND 1. Bangladesh has made substantial progress in poverty reduction, supported by sustained economic growth and human development gains. The national poverty rate halved from 48.9 percent in 2000 to 24.5 percent in 2016, lifting 25 million people out of poverty (World Bank 2019). This progress has been underpinned by an impressive average annual gross domestic product (GDP) growth of above 6 percent over the past decade. At the same time, human development outcomes have improved. Bangladesh has experienced the fastest decline in child and infant mortality rates among developing countries, attained near universal access to primary education, achieved gender parity in access at the primary and secondary education levels, and improved access to tertiary education for both males and females. Furthermore, women’s participation in the workforce has increased while the gap in wage differentials has declined. 2. Bangladesh will need to invest more to build its human capital and realize its aspirations to become a developed economy by 2041. According to the Human Capital Index 2018, a child born in Bangladesh today would be only “48 percent as productive when she grows up as she could be if she enjoyed complete education and full health” (World Bank 2017, 1). Several challenges remain in human development, including high rates of child malnutrition and stunting, inadequate quality of school education, and inequitable access to quality social services among disadvantaged socioeconomic groups, which prevent children from achieving their full potential. Bangladesh will have to urgently address these gaps in human development to take advantage of the opportunities provided by the rapidly changing global economy. 3. Investment in the early years remains one of the most important factors in building a strong human capital base and achieving greater economic prosperity. Global evidence shows that investment in the early years is one of the most cost-effective means of improving economic and social indicators (World Bank 2019). Multi-sectoral investments in health and nutrition, child protection, and early years education play an important role in ensuring that children are on the right track from birth onwards in terms of cognitive, language, socioemotional, and physical development. | 1 4. The government of Bangladesh (GoB) recognizes the National Curriculum and Textbook Board (NCTB) the importance of early childhood education (ECE) and distributed by the DPE to schools. MoPME informs in improving the quality of human capital. While ECD MoWCA of the work it is undertaking in ECE, aligned with initiatives have focused largely on health and nutrition, the CECCDP 2013. While the government is the largest the GoB is now increasingly putting stronger emphasis on provider of ECE, non-state institutions collectively account ECE. The NEP 2010 stresses the importance of preprimary for almost half of all ECE provision in Bangladesh. These education (PPE) for cognitive and physical development include private preschools and kindergartens, private of children and aspires to gradually extend PPE to two religious schools, nongovernmental organization (NGO) years from the current one-year program. The Ministry of preschools, and community-based schools.6 Primary and Mass Education (MoPME) introduced universal one-year of preprimary schooling in 2014 and established an operational framework for PPE aimed at providing 1.2 STUDY OBJECTIVES AND all children aged 4–5 years with access to some form of APPROACH education, as well as health, nutrition, social, physical, and intellectual development programs. In addition, the 6. Despite the importance of ECE in Bangladesh, Ministry of Women and Children’s Affairs (MoWCA) has available data and information about the sector are adopted the Comprehensive Early Childhood Care and scarce and scattered, and little attempt has been Development Policy 2013 (CECCDP 2013) to guide the made to comprehensively review the sector. Against delivery of ECD services. this backdrop, this study aims to provide a comprehensive review of the ECE subsector in Bangladesh and present 5. MoPME is the lead ministry for all aspects of ECE, while some key policy recommendations for addressing the MoWCA works on the broader national ECD agenda. identified challenges and opportunities. It is expected MoPME leads policy formulation and guides operations in that the findings of this study will inform future policy preprimary, primary, and nonformal education. It manages discussions on making quality ECE available to all children the PPE subsector through a directorate—the Directorate in the country. of Primary Education (DPE)—which is responsible for the administration and quality assurance of one year of PPE 7. Figure 1 presents an analytical framework for in all government and government-supported schools. analyzing the state of ECE in Bangladesh. The ultimate The PPE curriculum and textbooks are developed by focus of ECE interventions is improved child development Figure 1: Framework for ECE 6 Details of the ECE system are discussed extensively in Chapter 4. | 2 outcomes, which include cognitive, socioemotional, and 1.3 STUDY METHODOLOGY physical development of the child. A key to improving child development outcomes at the national level is the AND REPORT STRUCTURE provision of quality ECE services for all, which requires that 9. The study is based primarily on a desk review of existing ECE is widely and equitably accessible, ECE programs are of documents and literature on ECE and quantitative high quality, there is a strong system for the management analyses of existing survey data. The desk review and governance of ECE centers, and adequate financing is focuses on policies, plans, and strategies; existing studies; provided to the sector. The provision of ECE services itself is and pertinent records related to ECE in Bangladesh. The influenced by the larger local and national contexts, which quantitative analyses are based on data from two rounds of include national policies and strategies, macroeconomic the Household Income and Expenditure Survey (HIES 2010, conditions, and demographic changes. Access to ECE is 2016–2017); the Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS a result of both the supply of ECE services (for example, 2013);7 survey data from an ongoing impact evaluation of number and distribution of schools offering ECE) and the a small-scale ECE intervention in one district of the country; demand for ECE (which is, for example, influenced by the and the latest administrative data from the DPE. In addition, socioeconomic backgrounds of households). The quality the study uses some primary data collected using the World of ECE services is reflected both in the quality of inputs Bank’s Systems Approach for Better Education Results or structural elements such as curriculum, teaching- (SABER) tool to analyze the governance and management learning materials (TLMs), availability of qualified status of ECE in Bangladesh. teachers/educators, and child-teacher ratio as well as in 10. The rest of the report is organized as follows. Chapter the quality of the pedagogical process and the school- 2 uses data from the MICS and HIES to investigate access level monitoring and management system. Financing and equity issues in ECE provision and identify determinants refers to private as well as public financing of ECE, while of ECE participation. Chapter 3 presents findings on the governance and management considers the policies, quality of ECE provision, along with a discussion on the institutional organization, and rules and regulations that child development outcomes of Bangladeshi children. guide the sector. A strong ECE system also includes an This chapter uses information from the annual school efficient mechanism for systematic M&E of ECE activities census for analyzing the quality of inputs to ECE and and outcomes at different levels. MICS and Early Years Preschool Program (EYPP) survey 8. Using this conceptual framework, the report will review data for analyzing child development outcomes. Chapter the capacity of the ECE system focusing on the following 4 discusses the governance and management of ECE, key aspects: (a) access and equity, (b) quality of ECE, (c) including the mechanisms for quality assurance and M&E. governance and management, and (d) financing. Finally, It also analyzes Bangladesh’s policy environment using the the report will lay out policy recommendations for achieving SABER framework. Chapter 5 discusses the trends in public access to quality ECE for all children. financing of ECE, private spending on ECE, and examples of innovative financing options used in a number of other countries. Each chapter also includes policy options for moving forward. 7 At the time of this study, MICS 2019 was in progress. MICS 2012–13 was the latest available dataset to analyze the status of ECE among 4-year-olds in Bangladesh. | 3 | 4 2 Chapter ACCESS AND EQUITY IN EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION IN BANGLADESH 2.1 STATUS OF ECE PROVISION IN BANGLADESH 2.1.1 WHO PROVIDES ECE IN BANGLADESH? 11. ECE in Bangladesh is provided by a combination of public and non-state institutions. Children in the 3-5 age group are the target beneficiaries for ECE in Bangladesh. As shown in Table 1, these children attend a variety of public and non-state intuitions, though government primary schools (GPSs)—which offer one year of free PPE in preparation for primary schooling—are the main Table 1: Number of preprimary institutions and student enrollments, 2014 and 2018 No. of institutions No. of children enrolled Institution type 2014 2018 2014 2018 GPS 60,712 (72%) 63,480 (59%) 1,950,366 (63%) 1,690,773 (47.2%) RNGPS 1,255 (1.5%) 3,365 (3.15%) 38,510 (1.25%) 93,690 (2.62%) Experimental 11 (0.01%) 61 (0.06%) 266 (0.01%) 1,835 (0.05%) Religious 1,115 (1.32%) 1,129 (1.06%) 34,105 (1.1%) 66,278 (1.85%) Community 83 (0.1%) 117 (0.1%) 2,211 (0.07%) 2,929 (0.08%) Others 21,534 (25%) 38,700 (36%) 1,063,002 (34.4%) 1,722,879 (48.1%) Total 84,710 (100%) 106,852 (100%) 3,088,460 (100%) 3,578,384 (100%) Source: APSC 2010, 2018. Note: Other categories include NGO schools (such as Building Resources Across Communities [BRAC] schools) and different types of learning centers such as private kindergarten schools, jail schools, tea garden schools, schools for the hearing impaired and visually challenged, private religious schools, and learning centers for out-of-school children. | 5 providers of ECE in the country. In 2018, GPSs constituted 13. Public provision accounts for around half of the around 60 percent of the institutions providing ECE and total preprimary enrollment in Bangladesh. Before accounted for around 47 percent of the approximately the government introduced one year of PPE under the 3.6 million children enrolled in preprimary classes across Third Primary Education Development Program (PEDP3) the country. The rest were enrolled in other types of in 2014, NGOs and for-profit private institutions were the institutions, including registered nongovernment primary main providers of ECE. Some government schools offered schools (RNGPSs), experimental schools, religious schools, ‘baby classes’, which were noninstitutionalized setups NGO-managed schools, and for-profit private schools. taken up as local initiatives by school teachers to meet the demands of primary students with younger siblings 12. The total number of institutions offering PPE (CAMPE 2013). By 2018, however, PPE was available in has increased rapidly in recent years. The number around 63,480 GPSs across the country. The RNGPSs, of institutions offering PPE increased by 26 percent which are government-supported private schools in the between 2014 and 2018, from 86,710 to 106,852 (Table process of nationalization, accounted for another 3 percent 1). This increase was driven mainly by an expansion in (93,690 students) of preprimary students in 2018 (Figure 2). the number of non-state institutions, which outpaced However, the RNGPS students are expected to be absorbed the growth of public provision. During this period, the into the government school system once these schools are number of preprimary students actually declined by nationalized, making the government the single largest 13 percent in GPSs and increased by 62 percent in non- provider of ECE. Other providers, including NGOs and state institutions. As the average size of government for-profit private providers, accounted for a large share preprimary schools is smaller than that of other types of of the total ECE enrollment (48 percent), mainly due to providers, including NGOs and private providers, more their larger intake capacity and strategic locations in areas children have been accessing PPE through expanded where public provision is limited. Religious schools and non-state services in recent years even though a major experimental schools enrolled the remaining 2 percent of share of preprimary institutions are government funded preprimary students. and managed. In addition to the public supply constraint, evidence from key informant interviews suggests that an important contributing factor behind the decline in Figure 2: Proportion of preprimary enrollments by enrollments in GPSs could be parental preference for non- type of provider, 2017 (in percentage) state PPE due to their perception that non-state institutions provide better quality services. For example, CAMPE (2013) 47% found that NGO schools are likely to have dedicated Government primary school classrooms, well-trained teachers, specialized curriculum, and better teaching-learning facilities with higher parental involvement compared to other types of schools. Such an environment would likely create a positive perception of the quality of PPE among parents and influence their choice when enrolling children. Another reason cited for parents’ 3% Registered Non- preference for non-state PPE providers is proximity to the Government school or center (CAMPE 2013). Private kindergartens and primary school religious and NGO schools are often located in areas where 48% 0.1% public provision is low and would be preferred by parents Others Experimental when enrolling preschoolers due to the proximity of these 0.1% 1.8% centers to their homes.8 Community Religious Source: APSC 2010, 2018. 8 Although all indications point to there being supply-side factors that impede children’s access to ECE in Bangladesh, we do not have access to data that allow us to explore this issue in further detail, such as spatial factors. | 6 Figure 3: Preprimary GER for children ages 3–5 in relation to GNI per capita (2017) 200 Australia 150 Gross Enrollment Rate (%) Malta UK Germany Sri Lanka Czech Republic New Zealand 100 Malaysia Italy Denmark Maldives Slovenia Nepal Albania China Hungary Finland Pakistan Cyprus UAE Thailand Argentina Japan USA Brunei Indonesia Kuwait Kazakhstan Bahrain 50 Dominican Republic Greece Bangladesh Bahamas Bhutan Saudi Arabia India 0 7 8 9 10 11 Log GNI per capita (current USD) Source: Authors’ estimates using UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) Database for GER; World Development Indicators for gross national income (GNI) per capita. 2.1.2 TO WHAT EXTENT ARE CHILDREN increased from 24.4 percent to 40.9 percent between 2011 PARTICIPATING IN ECE? and 2017 (Table 2). Between 2014 and 2018, the total enrollment in preprimary classes increased by around 16 14. In terms of preprimary gross enrollment rate (GER), percent from 3.09 million to 3.57 million students, though Bangladesh is a below-average performer among the the figure decreased slightly between 2017 and 2018 countries in South Asia and a low performer compared to upper-middle-income and high-income countries. Figure 3 plots the preprimary GERs against per capita Table 2: GER for PPE in Bangladesh (%) incomes for a number of countries across the world in Total Male Female 2017. As the figure indicates, Bangladesh, with a GER of 40.3 percent, performs better than India and Bhutan but 2011 24.69 25.01 24.4 lags behind other countries in the region including Sri 2012 - - - Lanka, Nepal, and Pakistan, which have similar or lower 2013 31.71 31.7 31.7 per capita incomes. Most upper-middle-income and 2014 - - - high-income countries have much higher PPE GERs than Bangladesh. 2015 31.23 30.97 31.5 2016 34.27 33.66 34.9 15. However, access to PPE has increased substantially over the past several years, mainly due to the 2017 40.27 39.58 40.9 introduction of one year of PPE in GPSs. The PPE GER Source: UIS Database. Note: GER for children aged 3–5 years. | 7 Figure 4: Preprimary enrollments in all school types in Bangladesh (in millions) Male Female Total 3.67 3.57 3.09 3.13 2.86 1.84 1.83 1.79 1.78 1.58 1.51 1.57 1.56 1.45 1.41 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 Source: APSC various years. (Figure 4). In 2013, a year before the introduction of one remaining 29.3 percent were not enrolled in any year of PPE in GPSs, total PPE enrollment was around 2.96 school (Figure 5). The large percentage of 5-year-old million.9 children not enrolled in any school and the presence of a significant number of underage children in primary grades 16. According to MICS 2012–13, among 5-year-old indicate that there is significant scope for increasing children, 45.3 percent were attending preschool, access to preschool education for 5-year-olds. Though the 25.4 percent were attending other grades, and the Figure 5: Share of children aged 5, 6, and 5–12 years either attending preschool, other grades, or not currently enrolled in school, 2012–13 8.3% 85.1% 6.5% 5-12 year old Preschool Other grades 33.5% 50.6% 16.0% None 6 year old 45.3% 25.4% 29.3% 5 year old Source: Authors’ estimates using MICS 2012–13. SCHOOL 9 This figure is based on the UIS database. Preprimary enrollment was not tracked in the Annual Primary School Census (APSC) before 2014. | 8 recommended age for preschool is 3–5 years, the MICS Figure 6: Proportion of children aged 3–4 years data show that over 50 percent of 6-year-old children were attending ECE program, 2012–13 attending preschool, highlighting the large number of Enrolled Not enrolled overage children in preschool. 17. The MICS data also show that only 13.5 percent of children aged 3–4 years were enrolled in ECE. Further 3-4 year old 13.4% 86.6% breakdown across age cohorts reveals that around 5.7 percent of 3-year-olds and 21.2 percent of 4-year-olds 4 year old 21.2% 78.8% were attending preschool (Figure 6). The reasons for low enrollments in preschool among 3- and 4-year-olds are 3 year old 5.7% 94.3% likely to be varied. The literature suggests that factors such as cultural norms and lack of parental understanding; Source: Authors’ estimates using MICS 2012–13. financial problems; social access issues, such as ethnic minority status or special needs; and geographical access problems are likely to contribute to lower participation were enrolled in preschool in 2016–17, a slight increase among younger children (CAMPE 2013; World Bank 2014). compared to 2010 (Figure 7). Among children age 5, the It is also possible that the non-enrolled children include share enrolled in preschool nearly doubled between those who were attending other grades or were not 2010 and 2016–17, from 17 percent to around 33 percent, enrolled in school anywhere.10 indicating significant improvements in age-appropriate 18. More recent data from the HIESs indicate that enrollment of children in preschool. The share of 6-year- late entry into preschool still persists but has been olds who attended preschool also increased but at a lower declining. According to the HIES 2010 and HIES 2016– rate compared to 5-year-olds during the same period. The 17 data, around 8 percent of children aged 5–12 years shares of 5- and 6-year-olds enrolled in other grades also Figure 7: Share of children aged 5, 6, and 5–12 years old who either attend preschool, other grades, or not currently enrolled in school (a) Status in 2010 (b) Status in 2017 Preschool Other grades None Preschool Other grades None 5-12 year old 5.2% 76.0% 18.8% 5-12 year old 7.9% 81.5% 10.6% 6 year old 15.1% 49.7% 35.2% 6 year old 22.9% 62.7% 14.4% 5 year old 17.2% 18.7% 64.1% 5 year old 32.7% 26.3% 41.0% Source: Authors’ estimates using HIES 2010. Source: Authors’ estimates using HIES 2017. The MICS module on children under 5 years does not provide data that would allow for further investigations into the distribution of ‘not enrolled children’ 10 among 3- and 4-year-old children | 9 increased, with around 63 percent of 6-year-olds enrolled age group (3–5 years) and the remaining 57 percent were in other grades in 2016–17. At the same time, the shares overage, reflecting a late school entry trend in Bangladesh. It of children not enrolled in school declined by more than is interesting to note that while 6- and 7-year-olds comprised 20 percentage points for both 5- and 6-year-olds, showing the bulk of the overaged preschoolers, there was also a improvements in bringing more children into school, large percentage of older preschool children (12 percent) especially at the right age. belonging to the 8–12 age group.11 One potential reason for the large number of overage preschoolers in Bangladesh is 2.1.3 WHO ARE THE CHILDREN ENROLLED IN parental perception of the appropriate age for enrollment PRESCHOOL IN BANGLADESH? in preschool. According to CAMPE (2013), many parents surveyed felt that 5-year-old children are not adequately 19. According to the MICS data, a sizeable portion of the mentally and physically developed to be attending school. children enrolled in preschool were overage, and males Another reason for late entry is that many working parents, comprised a slightly higher share of preschool students especially those from low-income households living in than females in 2012–13. As shown in Figure 8, preschool informal urban settlements, are often unable to drop off students in 2012–13 included children from a wide range of and pick up young children to and from school (World Bank, age groups. Among the children enrolled in preschool that 2018). Such families tend to wait till their children are old year, only 43 percent belonged to the appropriate preschool enough to commute to a nearby school independently. Figure 8: Distribution of preschool enrollments by gender (left) and age (right), 2012–13 (a) Share of enrollments by gender (b) Share of preschool enrollments by age groups Male Female 4% 6% 9-12 years old 3 years old 8% 22% 8 years old 4 years old 48 48 50 49 48 20% 7 years old 52 50 51 52 52 3 4 5 3-12 5-12 25% 15% year old year old year old year old year old 6 years old 5 years old Source: Authors’ estimates using MICS 2012–13. 11 Around 8 percent of children age 8 and 4 percent of children between ages 9 and 12 were attending preschool in 2012–13. Interviews suggest that older age children often cannot enroll in formal schooling and opt for non-formal PPE provided by NGOs and community-based centers. | 10 Figure 9: Distribution of preschool enrollments by gender (left) and age (right), 2010 and 2017 (a) Share of enrollments by gender, 2010 (b) Share of enrollments by age groups, 2010 Male Female 7% 4% Age 8 Age 9-12 19% 27% 50 38 45 Age 5 44 Age 7 56 50 62 55 43% Age 6 5 6 7-12 5-12 year old year old year old year old Source: Authors’ estimates using HIES 2017. (c) Share of enrollments by gender, 2017 (d) Share of enrollments by age groups, 2017 Male Female 4% 3% 8 year old 9-12 year old 15% 46% 46 39 47 5 year old 51 7 year old 49 54 61 53 32% 6 year old 5 6 7-12 5-12 year old year old year old year old Source: Authors’ estimates using HIES 2010 and 2017. There was near gender balance among 4- and 5-year-old these two years. These data show that preschool children children attending preschool in 2013. However, males aged5–12 years continue to be predominantly male (Figure comprised a higher share of students in the 3–12 age group. 9). Though the gender balance shifted in favor of females among 5-year-olds between 2010 and 2017, the share of 20. A similar distribution of preschool children is males remained higher for all other age groups. As for the observed in the HIES data from 2010 and 2017, along with distribution of preschool children across age cohorts, the a decline in the enrollment of overage children between share of 5-year-olds increased substantially between 2010 | 11 and 2017, from 27 percent to 46 percent, while the shares percent of preschool children in this age group belonged of 7- and 8-year-olds declined, indicating an improvement to the richest wealth quintile, only 14 percent came in age-appropriate enrollment in preprimary classes. from the poorest quintile. Given that the largest share of Nonetheless, around 54 percent of the children enrolled in preschool children belonged to the 5-year-old age group preschool in 2017 were 6 years or older, reconfirming that (Figure 9d), these findings indicate that age-appropriate the issue of late entry into school continues to persist. enrollment was significantly more prevalent among the richer households. 21. The MICS 2012–13 data show a disproportionately large share of 5-year-old preschool children from 22. However, the provision of preschool has become wealthier families. Among 5-year-olds, around 55 percent more pro-poor in recent years. According to the HIES data, of the children attending preschool belonged to the richest while around 22 percent of all children ages 5–12 enrolled two wealth quintiles (Figure 10a).12 Furthermore, while 32 in PPE came from the poorest quintile in 2010, this figure Figure 10: Distribution of preschool enrollments by wealth (left) and location (right), 2012–13 (a) Share of enrollments by wealth quintiles (b) Share of enrollments by location Poorest Second Middle Fourth Richest Urban Rural 16 24 32 21 22 19 16 19 19 83 78 70 77 77 19 23 17 18 17 21 15 21 20 20 16 27 21 14 22 22 17 22 30 23 23 3 4 5 5-12 3-12 3 4 5 5-12 3-12 year old year old year old year old year old year old year old year old year old year old Source: Authors’ estimates using MICS 2012–13. 12 The income quintiles used in the MICS are based on household wealth, which includes household assets. | 12 increased to 33 percent in 2017 (Figure 11). Across the age introduction of one year of free PPE in GPSs.13 groups, around 54 percent of 5-year-olds and 6-year-olds attending preschool were from the poorest two quintiles 23. Both the MICS data and the HIES data show that the in 2017, which represents a substantial improvement in vast majority of preschool children come from rural areas pro-poor access compared to 2010. The improvement (Figures 10b and 11 b and d). Furthermore, according to in pro-poor provision of ECE is likely due primarily to the HIES 2010 and HIES 2016–17, the share of PPE children Figure 11: Distribution of preschool enrollments across income quintiles (left) and location (right); 2010 and 2016–17 (a) Share of enrollments by income quintiles, 2010 (b) Share of enrollments by location, 2010 Poorest Second Middle Fourth Richest Rural Urban 30 25 15 24 18 45 51 35 45 23 20 19 20 18 16 18 16 16 16 16 18 18 30 22 55 49 66 55 5 6 7-12 5-12 5 6 7-12 5-12 year old year old year old year old year old year old year old year old Source: Authors’ estimates using HIES 2010. (c) Share of enrollments by income quintiles, 2017 (d) Share of enrollments by location, 2017 Poorest Second Middle Fourth Richest Urban Rural 12 13 11 12 16 14 15 15 19 15 18 18 68 66 68 67 21 22 24 22 32 30 38 33 32 34 32 33 5 6 7-12 5-12 5 6 7-12 5-12 year old year old year old year old year old year old year old year old Source: Authors’ estimates using HIES 2017. 13 Expansion of government provision of schooling is suggested to have improved access to education among children from poor households in Bangladesh (World Bank 2019). | 13 Figure 12: Share of children of aged 3, 4, 5, and 3–5 years not enrolled in preschool, 2012–13 (a) Distribution by gender (b) Distribution by age groups Male Female 5% 5 year old 48 48 43 48 43% 52% 3 year old 4 year old 52 52 57 52 3 4 5 3-5 year old year old year old year old Source: Author’s estimates using MICS 2012–13. from rural areas has increased over time, bringing it closer emphasis on increasing the participation of males in to the proportion of the population residing in rural areas preschool education. of the country. 14 26. Children not attending preschool or other grades are likely to be from the poorest families and living in rural 2.1.4 WHO ARE THE CHILDREN NOT ENROLLED IN areas. According to the MICS data, in 2012–13, around 26 PRESCHOOL IN BANGLADESH? percent of children aged 3–5 years who were not attending preschool or other grades were from the poorest quintile 24. According to the MICS, young male children were more likely to not be enrolled in preschool in 2012–13. The majority of the children aged 3–5 years not attending preschool or any other grades belonged to the younger age groups. More specifically, 3-year-olds and 4-year- Figure 13: Share of 5-year-old children not enrolled in olds comprise approximately 52 percent and 43 percent, preschool by gender (%), 2010 and 2017 respectively, of the 3–5-year-olds not enrolled in any grade (Figure 12). Among the 3–5-year-olds not enrolled, around Female Male 52 percent were males and 48 percent were females. The share of males was particularly high (57 percent) among 46 5-year-old children. 2017 54 25. The HIES data for 2017 show a similar gender distribution among 5-year-old children not enrolled in 52 preschool or any other grades. In 2017, around 54 percent 2010 of these children were male. However, the share of males 48 among these children was only 48 percent in 2010. This relatively large increase in the share of males among the 42 44 46 48 50 52 54 56 children not enrolled in school suggests that, from the perspective of gender parity, there is a need to put special Source: Authors’ estimates using HIES 2010 and 2017. 14 Percentage of rural population in Bangladesh was 64 percent (WDI 2019). | 14 Figure 14: Share of children aged 3, 4, 5, and 3–5 years not enrolled in preschool (%), 2012–13 (a) Distribution by wealth quintiles (b) Distribution by location Poorest Second Middle Fourth Richest Urban Rural 18 14 13 16 17 18 22 18 79 81 86 80 19 18 19 19 21 21 21 22 25 28 23 26 21 19 14 20 3 4 5 3-5 3 4 5 3-5 year old year old year old year old year old year old year old year old Source: Author’s estimates using MICS 2012–13. while only 16 percent were from the richest quintile (Figure Comparing 2010 and 2017, there has not been much 14). The HIES data also show a similar distribution of non- change in the distribution of non-enrolled children across enrolled 5-year-old children. In 2017, over 39 percent of income groups. In terms of location, both the MICS and these children came from the poorest income quintile HIES data show that the vast majority of these children compared to 9 percent from the richest (Figure 15a). continue to reside in rural areas. Figure 15: Share of 5-year-old children not enrolled in preschool, 2010 and 2017 (a) Distribution by income quintiles (b) Distribution by location 2010 2017 Urban 37 39 Rural 73 75 25 22 16 18 27 14 12 25 8 9 Poorest Second Middle Fourth Richest 2010 2017 Source: Authors’ estimates using HIES 2010 and 2017. 2.2 KEY ISSUES IN EQUITABLE ACCESS TO ECE IN BANGLADESH 27. The following paragraphs discuss the key issues in focus of the discussion in these paragraphs is on 4- and equitable access for children aged 4 to 5 years using 5-year-old children as these are the age groups that are MICS 2012–13 and the HIES data for 2010 and 2016–17. expected to be covered by government ECE programs in For children age 4, the child module of MICS is used as this the future when one year of PPE is extended to two years. is the only recent source available for this age cohort. The | 15 28. There are significant disparities in access to ECE preschool. Children age 5 from poorer families are also less by household socioeconomic status. Figure 16 shows likely to have never enrolled in school—around 39 percent that distribution of preschool enrollment among 4- and of children from the poorest quintile were not enrolled in 5-year-old children by household wealth index quintile15 in school compared to 17 percent from the richest quintile. 2012–13. Preschool participation tends to be much higher 29. Disparities in access to preschool and other grades for children from well-off families. Around 31.4 percent across income groups have declined among 5-year-old of 4-year-olds and 61.3 percent of 5-year-olds from the children in recent years (Figure 17). According to the HIES richest quintile were enrolled in ECE. By contrast, only 17.2 data, around 10 percent of 5-year-old children from the percent of 4-year-old children and 35.3 percent of 5-year- poorest families were enrolled in preschool compared to the old children from the poorest quintile were enrolled in Figure 16: Share of children attending preschool, 2012–13 (%) (a) Share of 4-year-olds in preschool (b) Share of 5-year-olds by preschool status and by wealth quintiles wealth quintiles 31.4 Preschool Other Grades None 21.4 Richest 61.3 21.9 16.8 19.7 19.1 17.2 Fourth 44.8 27.4 27.9 Middle 40.3 26.5 33.2 Second 39.7 25.3 35.0 Poorest 35.3 26.2 38.5 Poorest Second Middle Fourth Richest Source: Author’s estimates using MICS 2012–13. Figure 17: Share of 5-year-olds attending preschool and other grades by income quintiles, (%) (a) Distribution in 2010 (b) Distribution in 2016–17 Preschool Other Grades None Preschool Other Grades None Richest 42.1 18.4 39.5 Richest 40.4 27.2 32.5 Fourth 20.6 21.2 58.2 Fourth 37.0 27.8 35.3 Middle 16.5 23.4 60.1 Middle 30.2 30.4 39.4 Second 11.4 21.4 67.3 Second 32.7 26.6 40.7 Poorest 10.4 12.9 76.8 Poorest 30.0 23.1 46.9 Source: Authors’ estimates using HIES 2010 and 2017 15 The income quintiles used in MICS are based on household wealth which includes assets. | 16 42 percent from the richest families in 2010. By 2016–17, this especially among the poorer income groups, indicating inequity in access to preschool had declined significantly: overall improved equity in access to schooling. the difference between the richest and poorest quintiles 30. There is no significant gender disparity in access to in the share of children enrolled in preschool had shrunk preschool among 4- and 5-year-old children. Figure 18 from 32 percentage points in 2010 to 10 percentage points shows the share of 4- and 5-year-old males and females in 2016–17. The share of children from the poorest quintile who attended preschool in 2012–13. Among 4-year-olds, enrolled in other grades also increased during this period, a slightly higher share of female children (22 percent) were from 13 percent in 2010 to 23 percent in 2017. There was found to be enrolled in ECE programs compared to males also a significant reduction in out-of-school 5-year-olds, (20.5 percent). The results were similar for 5-year-olds as Figure 18: Share of children attending preschool by gender, 2012–2013 (%) (a) Share of 4-year-old children in preschool (b) Share of 5-year-old children in preschool 20.5 22.0 21.2 Total 45.3 25.4 29.3 Female 46.2 27.3 26.5 Male 44.5 23.5 32.0 Male Female Total Preschool Other Grades None Source: Based on author’s calculation using MICS 2012–13. Figure 19: Share of 5-year-old children by status of well. These findings are consistent with the conclusion enrollment and gender (%), 2010 and 2016–17 of the CAMPE (2013) report which shows that there is no Preschool Other Grades None significant difference in preschool attendance between males and females. The HIES 2016–17 data also show no Total 32.7 26.4 40.9 significant gender difference in preprimary enrollment among 5-year-olds—around 34 percent of the female 2016-17 Female 34.2 27.0 38.8 children attended preschool while this figure was 31 percent for males (Figure 19). However, the HIES data also show that Male 31.3 25.8 43.0 though the share of male children attending preschool was higher compared to the share of females in 2010, females eventually surpassed their male counterparts by 2016–17 in Total 17.2 18.7 64.1 terms of their uptake of ECE. 31. The MICS data show significant disparities in 2010 Female 15.2 18.7 66.2 preschool participation across geographical areas, Male 19.3 18.8 61.9 especially for 5-year-old children. The share of 4-year- old children in urban areas who attended preschool in 2012–13 was around 24 percent, slightly higher than the Source: Authors’ estimates using the HIES 2010 and 2016–17. | 17 share in rural areas (Figure 20). Among 5-year-olds, the the seven divisions, Barishal and Dhaka have higher ECE urban-rural difference is higher, with around 59 percent participation rates for 4-year-olds compared to Sylhet and of these children in urban areas enrolled in preschool Rajshahi, which are the worst performers. By contrast, compared to 41 percent in rural areas (Figure 21). Across for 5-year-olds, Sylhet and Khulna have the highest Figure 20: Share of 4-year-old children attending ECE by area (left), by major division (right), and by district (below) (%), 2012–13 29.2 24.2 23.2 21.8 20.5 21.2 20.6 20.8 16.1 16.6 Urban Rural Total Barishal Chittagong Dhaka Khulna Rajshahi Rangpur Sylhet 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 Bogra Cox’s Bazar Tangail Gazipur Naogaon Brahmanbaria Meherpur Sirajgan Sylhet Manikgan Chandpur Comilla Rajbari Khulna Rajshahi Magura Rangamati Jhenaidah Lalmonirhat chottagram Joypurhat Gopalganj Noakhali bagerhat Narail Bhola Kishorganj Jessore Lakshmipur Feni Nilphamari Barisal Source: Author’s estimates using MICS 2012–13. Figure 21: Share of 5-year-old children attending preschool by area (left), by major division (right), and by district (below) (%), 2012–13 58.8 56.4 58.6 45.3 47.5 44.4 41.3 40.7 43.7 30.2 Urban Rural Total Barishal Chittagong Dhaka Khulna Rajshahi Rangpur Sylhet 100 80 60 40 20 0 Thakurgaon Pabna Lalmonirhat Naogaon Gaibandah Noakhali Jamalpur Chandpur Bhola Narsingdhi Maulvibazar Kushtia Patuakhali Sylhet Chittagong Dhaka Sathkia Madaripur Narail Comilla Khulna Rajshahi Chuadanga Manikganj Bogra Rajbari Faridpur Joypurhat Gopalganj Source: Author’s estimates using MICS 2012–13. | 18 participation rates. Geographical disparities in preschool preschool increased from around 14 percent in 2010 to participation are even more pronounced when comparing around 31 percent in 2016–17. Similarly, the share of across districts: for example, the share of 5-year-old children from urban areas attending preschool increased children attending PPE ranges from a low of 10 percent in from around 25 percent to 39 percent during this period. Thakurgaon to a high of 90 percent in Gopalganj. Participation in preschool increased across all divisions, with Rangpur, Rajshahi, and Khulna achieving attendance 32. Participation in preschool improved among 5-year- rates exceeding 35 percent. Despite this progress, there still old children from rural areas and across the major remains significant scope to improve access to preschool divisions between 2010 and 2016–17. As Figure 22 in each division as indicated by the large percentages of shows, the share of children from rural families attending children who were not enrolled in any grade in 2017. Figure 22: Share of 5-year-old children attending preschool, 2010 and 2016–17, (%) (a) Distribution by location type (b) Distribution by major divisionsa Preschool Other Grades None 2010 2016-17 45.2 Urban 38.6 23.9 37.5 40.0 2016-17 35.1 29.7 31.4 Rural 30.5 27.3 42.2 28.1 27.0 25.6 18.9 20.2 20.0 17.4 15.6 15.0 Urban 24.6 20.8 54.7 13.3 2010 Rural 13.8 17.8 68.4 0.0 Barishal Chittagong Dhaka Khulna Rajshahi Rangpur Sylhet Mymensingh Source: Authors’ estimates using HIES 2010 and 2016. Note: a. Mymensingh was declared as a major division post 2010. 2.3 DETERMINANTS OF ECE ATTENDANCE 33. There are a number of factors that could potentially this discussion refers only to relationships and correlations influence ECE participation. The relationship between between ECE attendance and the explanatory factors. The these factors and ECE attendance for 5-year-olds is explored explanatory variables used in the model are largely dictated using the following simple probit regression model: by what is available in the HIES dataset. Nevertheless, this Yi = α + βXi + εi εi~N (0, σ 2), (1) analysis does include a number of important variables mentioned in the literature (for example, Self and where Yi is the outcome (whether the child attended ECE Grabowski 2008), such as father’s and mother’s education or not) for child i, Xi represents a set of child and family levels, household socioeconomic status, ethnicity of the characteristics, and εi is a random error term. Though the child, gender of the child, and the number of children in the above model implies a causal relationship between Yi and family. The regression analysis uses HIES data from 2010 the right-hand side variables, it is not possible to establish and 2016–17. causality using the available observational data. Therefore, | 19 34. A comparison of the descriptive statistics for 36. Female children are more likely, and children with children enrolled in ECE and those not enrolled in ECE disabilities less likely, to enroll in ECE. In 2016, there in 2016–17 reveals differences between these groups in was a positive relationship between enrollment in ECE a number of areas. As summarized in Table 3, there are and being female, while the relationship was negative more females among children enrolled in preprimary, but statistically significant at the 10 percent level in 2010. but male children outnumber females among those not There was a statistically significant negative relationship enrolled in any grade. Among children with a disability, between a child’s disability status and enrollment in ECE there are many more who are not enrolled in any grade in 2016. More specifically, the regression findings indicate compared to those who are enrolled in ECE. Average years that a child with a disability is 54 percent more likely not of education of father and mother are lower for children to be enrolled in preschool compared to a child with no who are not enrolled in school, and students from poorer disability, holding other factors constant. This relationship families appear more likely to be out of school. was not significant in 2010, presumably because the enrollment in ECE was low across the board then.17 35. There is a statistically significant positive relationship between enrollment in ECE and mother’s 37. There is a weak correlation between household years of education. This relationship holds for both years, economic status and enrollment in ECE. Children in even after controlling for other characteristics such as the fourth poorest and the richest quintile were found to gender and disability status of the child, education level be more likely to enroll in ECE in 2016. In 2010, there was of the father, economic status of the household, urban a statistically significant positive relationship between status, and division where the household resides. The belonging to the richest quintile and enrollment in ECE. probit estimates are provided in Column (1) of Table 4 and Annex 1.16 Table 3: Descriptive statistics on factors affecting school attendance for children aged 5 years by enrollment status, 2016–17 Not enrolled in any school Enrolled in preprimary Enrolled in other grades Mean Mean Std. dev. Mean Std. dev. Mean Std. dev. The child is a female 0.46 0.49 0.51 0.50 0.50 0.50 The child lives in urban area 0.25 0.43 0.32 0.47 0.25 0.43 The child has a disability 0.06 0.24 0.03 0.17 0.04 0.19 Years of education of father 4.01 4.23 5.46 4.58 4.94 4.58 Years of education of mother 4.43 3.93 5.90 3.91 5.46 4.00 Number of children aged 0–17 2.49 1.09 2.25 0.98 2.43 1.09 years in the household Consumption quintile 2.27 1.30 2.53 1.39 2.52 1.33 Number of observations 1,417 1,127 900 Source: Based on authors’ calculation using HIES, 2016–17. 16 The population of interest for Column (1) is age 5 children not studying in other grades. Children age 5 studying in other grades are excluded from the analysis here. 17 The variable indicating disability was missing in the 2005 HIES sample. | 20 38. Females and children with better educated mothers also contributes to ensuring age-appropriate enrollment. are more likely to be enrolled in PPE at the appropriate 39. Among 5-year-old children currently enrolled age (5 years) than at other ages.18 In Column (2) of Table in PPE or other grades, location of residence has a 4 and Annex 1, children age 5 and currently attending PPE significant association with a child’s enrollment in ECE are compared with PPE students age 6 or older. Among the in 2010.19 Column (3) in Table 4 and Annex 1 show how the children attending PPE, 46 percent are of appropriate age. characteristics of enrolled children age 5 are associated with The estimates for age-appropriateness using this measure these children’s enrollment in PPE versus their enrollment are largely similar to the estimates obtained in Column (1) in other grades. The results indicate that urban children for 2016, except for children residing in urban areas who and children from three of the seven divisions are more are less likely to be enrolled in PPE at age 5. For 2010, likely to be in PPE than in other grades in 2016. However, mother’s years of education is the only variable that is such relationships do not exist in 2010. Similarly, no obvious significant at the 1 percent level. This means that mother’s pattern can be seen for the other factors. education not only helps put the child in PPE classes but Table 4: Marginal effects of probit estimates for enrollment in ECE and age-appropriate enrollments in ECE for 2016 (1) (2) (3) Enrolled in ECE Age 5 children enrolled ECE in age 5 versus Variables (versus not enrolled in PPE versus enrolled other ages in school) for age 5 in other grades The child is a female 0.146*** (2.740) 0.225*** (4.150) 0.084 (1.416) The child lives in urban area 0.093 (1.508) −0.126** (−2.066) 0.228*** (3.293) The child has disability −0.543*** (−4.069) −0.352** (−2.474) −0.245 (−1.460) Years of education of father 0.019** (2.275) 0.030*** (3.713) 0.009 (1.036) Years of education of mother 0.034*** (3.631) 0.019** (2.040) 0.001 (0.131) Number of children aged 0–17 years in the family −0.070** (−2.424) −0.110*** (−3.702) −0.072** (−2.201) The child's family is in second poorest quintile 0.101 (1.397) −0.069 (−0.928) −0.072 (−0.874) The child's family is in third poorest quintile 0.016 (0.200) −0.146* (−1.753) −0.204** (−2.302) The child's family is in fourth poorest quintile 0.157* (1.744) −0.120 (−1.315) −0.086 (−0.879) The child's family is in the richest quintile 0.159 (1.465) −0.306*** (−2.972) −0.079 (−0.683) The child lives in Chittagong division 0.072 (0.683) 0.019 (0.154) 0.052 (0.423) The child lives in Dhaka division 0.221** (2.045) −0.153 (−1.305) −0.048 (−0.401) The child lives in Khulna division 0.239** (2.033) −0.254** (−2.040) 0.160 (1.203) The child lives in Mymensingh division 0.297** (2.103) 0.171 (1.084) −0.301** (−2.094) The child lives in Rajshahi division 0.416*** (3.638) −0.225* (−1.886) 0.312** (2.412) The child lives in Rangpur division 0.535*** (4.728) −0.138 (−1.163) 0.573*** (4.327) The child lives in Sylhet division 0.129 (1.018) 0.313** (2.096) 0.035 (0.248) Constant −0.604*** (−4.617) 0.049 (0.351) 0.127 (0.854) Observations 2,335 2,239 1,872 Source: Based on authors’ calculation using HIES, 2016–17. Note: z-statistics in parentheses; ***p < 0.01, **p < 0.05, *p < 0.1. 18 The population of interest for Column (2) is children who are currently in PPE. Children ages 5–12 who are not in PPE are excluded from the analysis here. 19 The population of interest for Column (3) is children age 5 who are currently studying. Those children age 5 who are not in school are excluded from the analysis. | 21 2.4 POLICY OPTIONS 40. Bangladesh needs to increase enrollment in PPE. subsidy to pay for children’s school fees. This is considered The preprimary GER of 40.3 percent is low considering to have been an important factor in achieving more than Bangladesh’s aspirations to become a developed country 98 percent participation rate of children aged 4–6 year in by 2041. Among 5-year-old children in 2017, the enrollment preschool (Ting 2007). rate was around 33 percent while almost 44 percent did 43. Public-private partnership to increase provision not attend any school. This indicates that a large share of ECE in rural and remote areas is another approach of preprimary age children are still left out of the system. to bring more children from the peripheries into the Access to ECE in earlier years also has the largest cognitive system. As discussed, the nongovernment sector already benefits to children. The low ECE enrollment rate (21 accounts for a major share of preprimary enrollment in percent) among 4-year-old children suggests that it would Bangladesh. The government may consider providing a be particularly important for Bangladesh to undertake subsidy per child enrolling in an NGO or private sector ECD measures to improve access for younger children, especially center in targeted areas where government provision is when expanding the provision of PPE. limited. Matching grants to non-state providers to establish 41. Interventions to support access to ECE would ECD centers can also be used to support the expansion need to place special focus on children from of ECE in remote areas, such as hilly and char areas. socioeconomically disadvantaged families, especially For example, South Africa has improved access to early those from rural areas. The preceding sections clearly childhood care and education services to children aged 3–5 show that children from poorer households across all age years through partnership with non-state actors through groups are less likely to enroll in preschool. In terms of a combination of the policies mentioned earlier.20 South geographic location, 4- and 5-year-old children living in Africa introduced ECD conditional grants for provincial rural areas have lower ECE participation rates than those governments to fund expansion of ECD services and from urban centers. ECE is most important for children of development of ECD infrastructure. These grants enabled disadvantaged families as early developmental delays are additional resources for expansion of ECD infrastructure in likely to reduce their cognitive development and ability to addition to a per child subsidy provided to NGO-run ECD earn, thus further intensifying income disparities when they centers (Gustafsson, W. et al. 2017). Another good example become adult (World Bank 2014). The analysis also shows of where public-private partnership has had a positive that efforts are needed to ensure access ECE in a timely, age impact on the expansion of ECE services for targeted rural appropriate manner, especially for male children. populations is in Mozambique where the government recruited NGOs to help improve ECD service provision and 42. Financial assistance to children from the most community-based management capacity in preschools in economically disadvantaged families is one way to targeted rural areas. The NGOs were mainly responsible for improve access to ECE. Poverty-targeted stipends is a providing learning materials, maintaining the preschools, good approach to create demand and improve access to and building community management capacity before ECE for children from the poorest families. Stipends in the handing over to the ECD community committee. After form of cash transfers conditional on attendance are likely successful completion of four months of providing ECD to improve attendance, retention, and learning outcomes. services with performance indicating 80 percent of enrolled Subsidies to families with more than one school-age child children attending, the ECD community committee takes is also an option. For example, Singapore introduced the over (Caillaud and Heinzel-Nelson 2016; cited in Gustafsson, Children Development Co-savings scheme which enabled W. et al. 2017). parents with more than one child to receive a government 20 Between 2002 to 2014, ECE participation of children aged 3–5 years increased by 20 percentage points. | 22 44. A needs assessment for increasing access to interventions such as the expansion of appropriate teacher ECE for children with disabilities is critical. Children training programs and disability-friendly facilities. with physical and/or cognitive disabilities face multiple 45. Increasing parental and community awareness disadvantages in accessing ECE programs. On the one on the importance of ECE is important to ensure that hand, because of the limited provision of ECE facilities children of appropriate age enroll in ECE programs. As across the country, they too face challenges like many other most parents in Bangladesh focus on academic learning, children in enrolling in ECE programs. On the other hand, they are often not aware of the importance of social even when ECE facilities are available, they usually do not interactions and play in developing children’s cognitive and have the appropriate curriculum and specialized teachers socioemotional skills. A significant share of children (around to meet the special needs of these children. Furthermore, 20 percent) therefore directly enroll in Grade 1 without children with disabilities from poorer families face even attending preschool. Moreover, late entry into preschool is a greater disadvantages as the special assistance they require common phenomenon as wrong perceptions may be held is often beyond their reach due to resource constraints. It in communities on the appropriate age of children enrolling is important for the government to conduct a thorough in preschool in terms of mental and physical development. needs assessment to gain a sound understanding of the It is, therefore, critical for the government to implement challenges faced by, and needs of, this population group, interventions for raising awareness among parents and the and operationalize a plan for increasing their access to community at large on the benefits of ECE for children aged appropriate early learning programs. The plan would 4–5 years. likely need to include both demand-side interventions such as poverty-targeted assistance as well as supply-side | 23 | 24 3 Chapter QUALITY OF ECE IN BANGLADESH 3.1 FRAMEWORK FOR ECE QUALITY 46. High quality ECE is critical for supporting children’s ability to develop strong foundational skills and readiness for school. Figure 23 illustrates an analytical framework for analyzing the provision of quality ECE. The provision of quality ECE depends on critical inputs, including appropriate curriculum, qualified ECE teachers, and a conducive classroom environment (such as physical environment, teaching-learning and play materials, and child-teacher ratio). School-level processes, including the pedagogical process, linked closely to teachers’ qualifications and professional development, as well as school monitoring and management capacity, work to ensure that inputs are managed efficiently and effectively for achieving the desired student/child development outcomes. A strong ECE system also includes an efficient system-level quality assurance mechanism for monitoring, evaluating, and managing the quality of the system. The child development outcomes from ECE include physical development, early literacy and numeracy skills, and socioemotional skills. | 25 Figure 23: Framework for ECE Quality System-Level Monitoring and Quality Assurance Inputs School Process Student Outcome Curriculum Pedagogical process Physical development PhuPhu ECE Teachers School management, Early literacy and including monitoring numeracy skills Classroom and feedback Environment Socioemotional skills - Teaching learning materials - Student-teacher ratio Cognitive - Student-classroom development ratio Source: Adapted from Bhatta et al. 2019. | 26 3.2 QUALITY OF INPUTS 3.2.1 PREPRIMARY CURRICULUM However, an absence of regular child development outcome tracking following PPE limits the ability to determine the 47. The national preprimary curriculum development effectiveness of the curriculum in developing literacy and and administration is handled mainly by the DPE, the numeracy; physical skills; socio-emotional skills; and NCTB, and the National Academy for Primary Education approaches to learning, despite its well-organized content (NAPE), with support from district- and subdistrict- and structure. level entities. The DPE, which is the implementing arm of MoPME, is responsible for the overall management and 49. Although the national PPE curriculum is designed implementation of preprimary and primary education. to incorporate a play-based approach, PPE delivery in The NCTB is responsible for developing and revising the the classroom tends to focus on academics in practice. national curriculum from preprimary to higher secondary This is often due to the underdeveloped pedagogical skills (Grade 12/equivalent) levels as well as developing and of teachers, inadequate play materials, and an emphasis refining textbooks and other TLMs based on the national on academic learning in government schools (CAMPE curriculum.21 The DPE and the NCTB are also responsible 2013). Government PPE teachers receive some training to for the printing of PPE textbooks and supplementary implement play-based PPE in the classroom.23 Yet these one- materials and for their distribution to government and time short training programs are inadequate for ensuring nongovernment schools. NAPE is responsible for orientating that these teachers are fully equipped to effectively deliver and developing master trainers and education managers the curriculum as well as identify and address the needs for the PPE curriculum. The master trainers in turn orient of the children. On the other hand, some NGO schools and PPE teachers at the district and subdistrict (upazila) level private schools provide customized PPE training, including through the Primary Teacher Training Institutes (PTIs) and regular refresher training and mentorship, for PPE teachers Upazila Resource Centers (URCs), respectively. The DPE to improve the quality of teaching. Additionally, a shortage coordinates the delivery of the PPE curriculum orientation of play materials and storybooks often makes effective PPE to teachers. delivery challenging for teachers in government schools (CAMPE 2013; Islam, Das, and Roy 2016). Another challenge 48. The current national preprimary curriculum was in implementing play-based PPE is the focus on academic developed according to established principles for learning in most schools. CAMPE (2013) notes that while some learning outcomes22. The NCTB developed and rolled out parents do recognize that academic aspects of preschool are the preprimary curriculum in 2014 with a focus on child often overwhelming for young children, there is a pervasive development outcomes. According to the NCTB’s Pre- cultural mindset among most parents that schooling in Primary Curriculum Plan 2011, the curriculum is organized general, including preschool, should focus on developing around nine core principles following global standard a child’s academic skills. The introduction of two PPE practices: (a) child centeredness, (b) children as active textbooks focusing on Bangla language and numeracy skills learners, (c) family involvement, (d) schools as responsive development could be considered a result of the academics- social institutes, (e) inclusiveness, (f) local culture and focused mindset of officials. heritage, (g) relationship, (h) immediate environment, and (i) environmental friendliness in the development of the 50. The government has recently partnered with NGOs PPE curriculum. Based on these principles, the curriculum in an effort to promote play-centered PPE in several aims to achieve child development outcomes across four pilot schools. NGO-run schools follow customized early domains: physical and motor skills, social and emotional, year learning curricula, which emphasize play and joyful language and communication, and cognitive development. learning. For example, in 2015, BRAC launched its play- 21 In addition to developing the PPE curriculum, the NCTB is also responsible for developing supplementary TLMs such as teacher’ manuals, flipcharts, flashcards, play materials, and storybooks to complement PPE textbooks. 22 These principles were developed building on the existing standards and practices of NGOs implementing ECE as well as global best practices. 23 The different type of play-based activities under eight categories include daily assembly and greetings; physical exercise; creative exercise; language exercise; creative exercises related to science, environment, art, structured play, science, and math; and safety related exercise and free play. | 27 based ECE model focusing on child development outcomes 3.2.2 TLMS AND CLASS SIZE rather than on academic outcomes, and it piloted the 52. Adequate availability of quality supplementary model in 300 GPSs in partnership with the DPE in 2018. TLMs, including play materials, remains a challenge The pilot aims to improve the PPE learning environment in in the GPSs. According to an assessment of preprimary these schools through the provision of play materials and implementation in government schools, around 65 percent child-friendly environments in classrooms (Box 1). Under of government preschool classrooms had charts/pictures this arrangement, one paraprofessional teacher selected by hanging on the walls, of which only 47 percent had these the school management committee and one PPE trained displayed at the eye level of children (Islam, Das, and Roy teacher implement different play-based activities in the 2016). While 87 percent had boards and chalks, only a quarter pilot schools. of the surveyed classrooms had supplementary teaching- learning and play materials. As per the PPE curriculum standards, each preprimary school/classroom should have four corners—book and arts, block, imaginative, and sand BOX 1: and water. However, the survey found that only around 35 BRAC model for promoting play percent of preprimary schools had book and arts corners, centered PPE 26 percent had block corners, 31 percent had imaginative corners, and 14 percent had sand and water corners. The assessment also noted that, in practice, play was not Under the BRAC pilot in government primary adequately included as part of curricular activities in most schools, the classroom built environment and of the preprimary classes, even when there was sufficient outdoor environment are reorganized to create outdoor play space. NGO-run schools are more likely to be more ‘play-friendly’ spaces for PPE children. better resourced with teaching-learning and play materials The pilot schools are provided with low-cost compared to GPSs and other types of schools. CAMPE play materials, books and arts corners, blocks (2013) found that 99 percent of the NGO schools had charts; corners, sand corners, and water corners. 95 percent had toys; 93 percent had drawing materials; over Relevant pictures and charts are placed at three-quarters had materials for physical exercise; and 43 the eye level of children. Teachers and school percent had materials relevant for singing, dancing, and children are guided to use play corners both drama. inside and outside the classroom. 53. The target for the average student teacher ratio (STR) at the preprimary level set by the Bangladesh government is yet to be achieved. An appropriate STR is important for ensuring the delivery of quality ECE. 51. The current PPE curriculum is undergoing a review Studies show that smaller STRs may improve child-teacher to incorporate play and a set of newly introduced relationships and reduce teacher stress, which in turn can standards for child development outcomes. The Early help improve teaching quality and child development Learning Development Standards (ELDS) prepared by outcomes (Barnett et. al 2004; Morgan 2019). In Bangladesh, MoWCA and adopted by all relevant ministries, including the average STR in preprimary is 37 to 1, around 23 percent MoPME, was officially launched in 2016 (see Annex 2). The higher than the recommended target of 30 to 1 set in ELDS cover 16 areas of child development to be attained MoPME’s Preprimary Education Manual. However, as Figure through early years learning. Following the development 24 shows, the STR varies widely across schools, with more of the ELDS, the revision of the PPE curriculum was than 50 percent of schools having STRs above 33:1 and initiated in 2018 with the aim of introducing the updated 25 percent having STRs above 48:1. The average STR also curriculum, textbooks, and supplementary materials in varies across divisions, with Barishal having an average of government preprimary classes by 2022.24 42 children to be managed by one teacher. This is largely the 24 Fourth Primary Education Development Program (PEDP4) Document. | 28 Figure 24: Average student-teacher ratio (STR) in preprimary schools in Bangladesh; 2017 (a) By school distribution (b) By major divisions 140 42 36 36 37 38 38 37 120 31 100 80 60 40 20 0 Sylhet Rangpur Khulna Rajshahi Chittagong Dhaka Barishal Overall 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% Source: Authors’ estimates using APSC 2017. result of preprimary teacher recruitment not keeping pace middle-income countries (17:1), and lower-middle-income with the expansion of government preprimary enrollments countries (20:1). It is also slightly higher than the average since 2014. STR for low-income countries (34:1).25 54. Bangladesh still has a long way to go in meeting 55. The average SCR is around 34 children per global standards for STR in PPE. The global standard preprimary classroom, though variation is wide for STR set by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) across schools. Only half of the schools have SCRs below is 20 pupils for one teacher in preprimary classes, which 30 (Figure 25). The remaining schools have SCRs greater is significantly lower than the current official target (30:1) than 30. The average classroom size is relatively uniform set by the Bangladesh government. The current average across divisions, ranging between 30 and 36 children per preprimary STR of 37:1 for Bangladesh is much higher than classroom. It should be noted that preprimary classes in the 2017 averages for high-income countries (14:1), upper- countries with developed preschool systems generally have Figure 25: Average student-classroom ratio (SCR) in preprimary schools in Bangladesh, 2017 (a) By school distribution (b) By major division 90 35 36 36 34 80 32 32 33 30 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% Sylhet Rangpur Khulna Rajshahi Chittagong Dhaka Barishal Overall Source: Authors’ estimates using APSC 2017. 25 UNICEF 2017. Note: The average STR reported, however, conceals a number of nuances. For example, many countries show a lower average ratio, but those numbers are misleading because very few children have access to preprimary services in those countries. Despite these variations, nonetheless, many countries in lower-middle-income countries have been able to reach average of STR 20 to 1. | 29 at least two staff members (one teacher and a teacher aide Table 5: Share of PPE teachers with various or two teachers) to support a classroom with 20 children professional development trainings (%) aged 4–5 years (Schachner et al. 2016. However, in the case of Bangladesh, government preprimary classes function Percentage Type of professional Number of share of total with only one teacher. Given the large class sizes and degree PPE teacher PPE teachers absence of additional support, providing quality ECE to the (%) children is a big challenge for PPE teachers. The child is a female Certification in education 1,680 10 3.2.3 STATUS OF PREPRIMARY TEACHERS Diploma in primary 448 3 56. Most PPE teachers are female with modest levels of education education qualifications. According to APSC 2018, there No basic professional 14,805 87 are almost 30,000 preprimary teachers, of whom 74 percent degree are females. As most teachers are females, the majority of Total 16,933 100 PPE teachers hold the minimum requirement of a higher Higher level professional training secondary certificate degree,26 while around 23 percent Diploma in education 470 3 have a bachelor’s degree or higher. Around 13 percent of Bachelor’s in education 713 5 PPE teachers have a secondary school certificate degree Master’s in education 345 2 (Grade 10/equivalent) or below. These PPE teachers are Others 344 2 either those recruited under special consideration in GPSs when the minimum qualifications were lower or those No higher professional 13,242 88 degree in education belonging to nongovernment schools such as NGO- and Total 15,114 100 community-based schools.27 A small share of PPE teachers have a professional degree in education. Source: Authors’ estimates using APSC 2017. Figure 26: Share of preprimary teachers by education qualification in 2017 (%) 42 training as of 2018. However, other than the PPE orientation training, few teachers have received in-service basic professional training. As Table 5 shows, around 10 percent 23 of PPE teachers have a certificate in education and around 3 percent have a diploma in primary education. In terms of 11 higher-level professional degrees, only around 5 percent 2 have a bachelor’s degree in education while another 2 Below Secondary Higher Bachelors percent have a master’s degree in education. Higher-level SSC School School professional education programs are offered at university Certificate Certificate and generally pursued as pre-service degrees for teaching Source: Authors’ estimates using APSC 2017. careers in Bangladesh. Note: SSC = Secondary School Certificate. 58. There is a shortage of preprimary teachers in the 57. While most PPE teachers have received curriculum government schools. According to APSC 2018, around training, few have received any other type of 29,942 PPE teachers were deployed against 38,278 professional development training. According to the government schools with PPE classes. This indicates that APSC, around 83 percent of 29,942 PPE teachers in GPSs around 22 percent of GPSs with PPE classes are operating had completed the mandatory 15-day PPE orientation without a dedicated and trained preprimary teacher. 26 The minimum requirement for female PPE teachers in government schools was a higher secondary school (Grade 12/equivalent) degree up until 2018. On the other hand, the minimum educational qualification required for male PPE teachers was a minimum of bachelor’s degree. 27 Older recruitment guidelines had the provision for recruitment of assistant teachers with minimum secondary school certification under special consideration (page 217 of Teacher Recruitment Plan). | 30 Moreover, another 25,202 newly nationalized government staffing, resource constraints, and coordination challenges schools are listed as offering preprimary classes, but no across various entities and levels involved in training information is available on the current status of PPE teacher delivery (Figure 27). In particular, the chronic shortage of availability in these schools. To address teacher shortage instructors at the PTIs at the district level and at the URCs in PPE, the government plans to recruit 26,000 additional at the subdistrict levels is a key factor affecting the timely teachers by June 2023. Despite these efforts, it is anticipated delivery of training to teachers. As of 2019, more than one- that there will continue to be a shortage of teachers in the future as the government’s plans to expand PPE to two Figure 27: Flowchart on training plan implementation years will require a significant increase in the number of preprimary teachers. 59. Moreover, the current provision of professional National Trainers Pool (comprises development opportunities for PPE teachers in NCTB, DPE, and NGO officials engaged government schools has not translated into effective in preparation of PPE curriculum) leads pedagogy in the classroom. The current PPE teacher District-level Master Trainer Training training involves mainly a short in-service training conducted Training Venue: DPE; Coordinating over a period of 15 days. The training was introduced to Agencies: DPE and NCTB orient newly recruited and existing PPE teachers in using the curriculum and other learning materials. The training provides orientation on the PPE package (curriculum and materials) while covering some aspects of child psychology and child development. It also includes practical sessions on classroom instructional methods. Despite the provision Master Trainers Pool (comprises 2 of this training, studies suggest that teachers are more instructors from each PTI, 1 selected focused on creating an academic environment in the Assistant District Primary Education classroom instead of creating a play-based and joyful Officer (ADPEO), and 2 NGO trainers) leads Subdistrict (upazila)-level Master learning environment (CAMPE 2013). Strengthening the Trainer Training monitoring and teacher support/feedback system can help in ensuring that the training received is effectively translated Training Venue: PTI: Coordinating to the classroom. Agencies: DPE, PTI 60. Furthermore, delays in the implementation of the DPE Training Plan 2018–2023 for PPE have left a large number of PPE teachers without training on ECE. As of 2018, around 83 percent of teachers had completed a 15- day in-service training aimed at familiarizing them with the Upazila Trainers Pool (comprises 2 PPE curriculum (APSC 2018). This indicates that children URCs instructors, 2 selected Assistant in around 5,000 schools28 are going through PPE without Upazila Education Officers (AUEO), and a trained teacher, raising concerns about the quality of the need-based selected NGO trainer) leads Teacher Training ECE that they are receiving. As PPE expansion is expected to continue, the number of teachers requiring training Training Venue: URC: Coordinating will continue to increase and it will become ever more Agencies: DPE, URC, and PTIs challenging to complete teacher training activities on time. Interviews with officials suggest that the delays in training implementation can be attributed mainly to inadequate Source: Adapted from Bhatta et al. 2019. 28 These 5,000 GPS schools have deployed PPE teachers without training. As mentioned in the preceding sections, there are many GPS and possibly newly nationalized government primary schools (NNGPSs) conducting preprimary classes without an assigned and trained PPE teacher, raising severe quality concerns. | 31 third (around 38 percent) of sanctioned instructor positions sub-district levels, regular supervision is not maintained. remain vacant at the PTIs.29 As a result, the training capacity A survey from 2015 found that less than 5 percent of remains at 200 teachers per PTI annually, far below the preprimary classrooms were visited by UEOs, around 20 capacity needed for completing training for preprimary and percent were visited by AUEOs, and less than 1 percent were primary teachers in the system. visited by URC instructors during a given quarter (Islam, Das, and Roy 2016). The survey also notes that monitoring 3.2.4 MONITORING AND QUALITY ASSURANCE of preprimary classrooms by government personnel is less SYSTEM FOR ECE frequent for schools in remote areas, including rural, hilly, and island areas. Effective monitoring and supervision is 61. MoPME has established quality standards for reported to be hampered by other official responsibilities PPE centers which provide guidance on M&E of the of the education personnel (Islam, Das, and Roy 2016). provision of preschool. The Operational Framework for Moreover, the data collection on ECE is limited to a few Preprimary Education, developed by MoPME, sets minimum indicators tracked in the annual school census. There is a standards and requirements for preprimary classroom need for comprehensive and regular data collection on physical infrastructure, facilities, and staffing (see Annex ECE provision across public, private, NGO, and religious 3). The guidelines are comprehensive and provide the preschool centers. At present, private ECD centers remain basis for supervision checks, which are to be conducted largely outside the scope of national monitoring and quality as part of regular monitoring of primary government assurance efforts. Child development outcomes are yet to schools by upazila education officers (UEO), AUEOs, and be tracked at the national level, which would be useful in the URC instructors (Islam, Das, and Roy 2016).30 According understanding the quality of ECE provision especially in to the government’s PPE operational framework, UEOs comparison to global standards. The implementation of and URC instructors should visit preprimary classrooms stronger quality assurance in ECE would require significant once a quarter while AUEOs are to conduct more regular capacity enhancement at school, subdistrict, and district school supervisory visits. Additionally, annual school education offices as well as in the central institutions. censuses collect some limited information on the physical infrastructure of preprimary classrooms, PPE teacher 64. It is also relevant for Bangladesh to explore numbers, and teacher training. different policy reforms that have helped other countries improve the quality of service delivery 62. At the school level, the school principal (head and expand the reach of ECE programs. To address teacher) and preprimary teacher are responsible for constraints in the supply of qualified ECD workers, short- ensuring the delivery of quality PPE in the classroom. term skills training programs for ECE teachers, caregivers, All PPE teachers are provided with a checklist for monitoring and ECD center managers have been used in countries and assessing child development outcomes for each child such as Liberia and Rwanda. To upgrade skills of existing at the end of the school year. The checklist contains 16 preschool teachers, some countries such as Finland and criteria following the ELDS.31 However, till now there has Singapore are using in-service qualifications frameworks been no review of whether this is being implemented or any for preschool teachers, grants to universities for providing analysis of the checklist. Nonetheless, there is a provision and expanding preschool teacher training, and incentive under PEDP4 for two rounds of studies to be conducted bonuses for well-performing schools aimed at attracting on the use of this checklist by teachers in monitoring child and retaining teachers. Moreover, developed countries with outcomes. the best preschool systems regularly monitor and assess 63. Despite the progress made, the overall M&E system preschool performance through national quality assurance for ECE is weak. Though MoPME has assigned education systems. Box 2 provides further details on these examples. officials to monitor preprimary provision at the district and 29 Administrative data from DPE; Needs Assessment for Double Shifts in PTIs, 2019. 30 Upazila refers to subdistrict level. 31 See Annex 4. | 32 BOX 2: Examples of improving quality of ECE services SINGAPORE The Preschool Education Teacher Training and Accreditation Framework, which sets the minimum professional qualifications for preschool teachers (470 hours of training) and principals (1,200 hours of two-tier diploma training), paved the way for ensuring that preschools are staffed with adequately trained teachers. Furthermore, the gradual requirement upgrading—one in four teachers must have a diploma in preschool education training and all other teachers must be at least certificate-trained by January 2008—also provided a specific timeline and guideline to ensure quality PPE. Alongside, the Preschool Qualification Accreditation Committee set up by concerned ministries also ensured quality standards, requirements, and consistency in the training program. To incentivize schools, an annual recurrent grant was also provided to qualifying kindergartens to ensure development and retainment of qualified teachers. A national curriculum framework was made available to all kindergartens and child care centers as a tool to customize suitable programs to meet the specific needs of the children (Ting 2007). FINLAND Finland ensured the presence of qualified teachers and caregivers in institutions through the Qualification Requirements for Social Welfare Professionals Act (2005). Furthermore, additional funding has been granted to universities to increase the intake and training of kindergarten teachers. The new Early Childhood Education and Care legislation has also enabled the Ministry of Education and Culture to engage the Finnish Education Evaluation Center (FINEEC) to assess the quality and delivery of ECEC. The quality evaluation model introduced by FINEEC also verifies the enactment of different acts, frameworks, and comprehensive analysis engaging different stakeholders to evaluate the outcome of ECEC services. LIBERIA To increase the ECE workforce, two ECD training tracks were developed and incorporated into an established skills program targeting unemployed adolescent girls under Liberia’s Economic Empowerment of Adolescent Girls and Young Women program. RWANDA This pilot project placed unemployed young women in a training program to create caregivers, with a training curriculum strongly focused on both ECD and broader work readiness skills. It is now being scaled up, in alignment with the government’s professional education and training institutions and with a focus on strengthening the enabling environment (including accreditation and quality assurance of the training service providers). Source: FINEEC 2017; Ting 2007; World Bank 2018. | 33 3.3 QUALITY OF OUTCOMES 3.3.1 FINDINGS FROM THE MICS DATA 65. While ECE can contribute significantly to improving 68. The MICS has parent-reported child development the development outcomes of preschool age children, outcome information, which can be used to estimate the development trajectories of these children are the share of children who are developmentally on track also heavily influenced by what they are exposed to in as perceived by the parents. The MICS includes a series of earlier stages of their lives. In particular, research findings questions covering four development outcome domains: show that adequate stimulation and nutrition, especially literacy and numeracy, physical, socioemotional, and during the first two years, is critical for children’s physical, approaches to learning. Responses to these questions are cognitive, and socioemotional growth and development. used to compute the Early Childhood Development Index (ECDI), which measures the percentage of children who 66. Several global studies have provided evidence are developmentally on track in at least three of the four on the links between early childhood nutrition and domains. development (Aboud and Yousafzai 2015; Engle et al. 2011; Grantham-McGregor et al. 2014; Larson and Figure 28: Child development outcomes across Yousafzai 2015; Ousafzai et al. 2016). Stimulation and domains (ECDI scores) nutrition interventions delivered in the first two years of a child’s life in low-income and middle-income countries Age 3-4 Age 4 Age 3 have consistent short-term benefits to children’s early At least three 65% development and growth outcomes. A meta-analysis of of the four early stimulation and nutrition interventions conducted domains 59% between 2000 and 2013 in low-income and middle- income countries reported that responsive stimulation Approaches 90% to learning had a medium effect while nutrition supplementation domain with or without nutrition education had a small effect 88% on cognitive development at two years of age. A Social- 68% systematic review of combined stimulation and nutrition emotional interventions reported that stimulation consistently domain 67% benefited child development, and proper nutrition usually 95% improved health status and growth though it sometimes Physical also improved child development outcomes (Chaudhery domain 94% 2019). A recent longitudinal study conducted in a program setting in a rural highly disadvantaged low- and middle- Literacy- 20% income population demonstrated that responsive numeracy domain stimulation can provide sustained development benefits 11% to children even two years after the end of the intervention Source: Authors’ estimates using MICS 2012–13. (Chaudhery 2019). 67. Due to data limitations within Bangladesh, however, 69. The ECDI shows that only around 65 percent of this section will primarily focus on socioeconomic and children aged 3–4 years were developmentally on education related covariates of child development track in 2012–13 (Figure 28). There were, however, outcomes. It will analyze the status and determinants of significant differences in outcomes across the four child development outcomes of children aged 3 to 5 years, domains. While over 90 percent of the children were on using available data for these covariates from different track in terms of physical development and the ability surveys. to learn, a large percentage of children were lagging behind in the development of literacy-numeracy skills | 34 and socioemotional skills. More specifically, only one out 70. There were also notable differences in child of five children aged 3–4 years was developmentally on development outcomes across genders, geographic track for literacy-numeracy skills. Similarly, slightly above areas, and income groups, with male children, two-thirds of children were on track in the socioemotional children from rural areas, and children from less domain. Across age groups, older children are more wealthy families less likely to be developmentally on developmentally on track—around 71 percent of 4-year- track. Around two-thirds of male children aged 3–4 years olds compared to 59 percent of 3-year-olds. Particularly were developmentally on track while this figure stood at in the domains where children are falling most behind— 67 percent for females (Table 6). A lower share of children literacy-numeracy and the socioemotional development— from families living in rural areas (64 percent) were older children are more likely to be on track. For instance, meeting ECDI targets as opposed to those living in urban 4-year-old children are almost three times more likely to areas (71 percent). Around 64 percent of children age 4 be on track in the literacy-numeracy domain compared to from the poorest wealth quintile were developmentally 3-year-olds. This is probably because older children tend on track while this figure stood at 83 percent for those to be more mature and are more likely to be enrolled in from the richest quintile. Across age groups, the share of preschool where gains in learning and socioemotional 4-year-old children developmentally on track was higher skills are expected to progress. than the share of 3-year-olds across all socioeconomic characteristics. Table 6: Share of children developmentally on track by Figure 29: Share of 3- to 4-year-olds children location, gender, wealth, and ECE attendance (in %) developmentally on track by division 77% ECDI score 67% 67% 69% 66% 3-year- 4-year- 3- to 4-year- 58% olds olds olds 52% Overall 59.2 70.8 65.1 Location Urban 64.1 77.1 70.6 Rural 58.2 69.7 64.0 Gender Sylhet Chittagong Dhaka Rajshahi Barishal Khulna Rangpur Male 57.3 68.7 63.0 Source: Authors’ estimates using MICS 2012–13. Female 61.2 73.2 67.2 Wealth quintile 71. Across geographic locations, Sylhet and Chittagong Poorest 53.8 64.3 59.1 divisions were falling behind in child development Second poorest 57.9 67.8 63.0 outcomes. According to the ECDI, around 52 percent Middle 60.1 73.4 66.6 of children aged 3–4 years in Sylhet and 58 percent in Second richest 61.6 75.2 68.5 Chittagong were developmentally on track in 2012–13 (Figure 29). In contrast, Khulna and Rangpur division Richest 69.2 83.0 76.0 had better performance—nearly 77 percent of children in ECE attendance Rangpur and almost 70 percent in Khulna were meeting Attending 61.3 84.3 79.2 ECDI targets. Nonetheless, a large number of children are Not attending 59.0 67.0 62.7 not meeting development outcomes, indicating the need to enhance ECD efforts, especially with a focus on regional Source: Based on authors’ calculation using MICS 2012–13. Note: ECDI score: Percentage of children developmentally on track in at least disparities. three out of the four domains. | 35 Figure 30: Child development outcomes across domains, 2012–13 (a) By gender (b) By age 3 and 4 Literacy-numeracy Literacy-numeracy 100% 100% 80% 80% 60% 60% 40% 40% 29% 95% 20% 95% 20% 94% Approaches 19% Approaches to learning 0% Physical to learning 0% 11% Physical 90% 21% 88% 96% 90% 92% 66% Perfect Score 67% Perfect Score 71% Age 3 69% Male Socio- Socio- Female emotional Age 4 emotional Source: Based on authors’ calculation using MICS 2012–13. 72. Children who attend early childhood programs 73. In all four development domains, disparities are less are also more likely to be developmentally on prominent across gender and more visible with age. track. Among children aged 3–4 years, 79 percent With the exception of socioemotional development, there of those who were enrolled in ECE were meeting at is not much disparity across child development domains by least three out of the four development domains gender. A higher share of female children (71 percent) were as opposed to only 63 percent of those who did developmentally on track compared to male counterparts not attend any ECE program. This effect is more (66 percent) for the socioemotional domain. There were no pronounced for slightly older children—around 84 significant disparities in child development between male and percent of 4-year-old children compared to 61 percent female children across the literacy-numeracy, learning, and of 3-year-old children who attended preschool were physical domains. However, when considering age cohorts, developmentally on track. The corresponding figures older children were more likely to be developmentally on track. for those not enrolled in ECE are 67 percent for age 4 As Figure 30 shows, the share of 4-year-olds developmentally and 59 percent for age 3 children. on track has been consistently higher compared to 3-year- olds across the four domains. Figure 31: Child development outcomes across domains, 2012–13 (a) By location type (b) By wealth quintiles 100% Literacy-numeracy 100% Literacy-numeracy 80% 80% 40% 72% 26% 95% 60% 69% 60% 20% 95% 30% 69% 40% 16% 95% 40% 68% 95% 11% 20% 95% 65% 20% 95% Approaches 91% Approaches 0% to learning 0% 18% Physical to learning Physical 90% 95% 65% 68% 67% 69% Perfect 69% Middle Perfect Score 71% Score 72% Second Urban Poorest richest Socio- Socio- Rural emotional Second Poorest Richest emotional Source: Authors’ estimates using MICS 2012–13. | 36 74. Children from rural and poor families were less Figure 32: Child development outcomes across developmentally on track across the four domains. domains by ECE attendance Especially when considering literacy-numeracy skills, the 100% Literacy-numeracy urban-rural disparity was found to be quite pronounced. 80% Around 30.2 percent of urban children compared to 18 60% 48% percent of rural children were developmentally on track in 40% 20% 97% Approaches 93% terms of literacy-numeracy skills. This may be a reflection on access to and quality of early year learning among to learning 0% 15% Physical children (Figure 31). The MICS also shows that participation 89% 95% in preschool was higher among children living in urban 67% areas compared to those living in rural areas. The quality Perfect Score 73% of such programs is also likely to be higher in urban areas. Attends ECE For the remaining three domains, though urban children Socio- Doesn’t emotional are developmentally more on track, the differences are attend ECE slight. Similarly, when considering household wealth, Source: Authors’ estimates using MICS 2012–13. the disparity across the literacy-numeracy domain was found to be quite stark. While only 11 percent of children 76. Regressing child development outcomes on from the poorest families were developmentally on track various covariates demonstrates that the probability in literacy-numeracy skills, this figure stood at 40 percent of a child being developmentally on track is influenced for children from the richest families. On approaches to by several individual and household socioeconomic learning, around 93 percent of children from the richest characteristics (Table 7). Controlling for other factors, households were developmentally on track while the share a female child is around 12 percent more likely to be of those from the poorest families was 88 percent. Similarly, developmentally on track than a male child. Age also a higher share of children from wealthier families were meeting development targets across socioemotional skills Table 7: Factors affecting likelihood of child being developmentally on track compared to those from poorer households. As discussed in Chapter 2, children from higher-income households are Dependent variable: Child is developmentally on track = 1 more likely to participate in early year learning programs, The child is a female 0.123** which would also explain the differences in gains across (4.201) these three domains, as discussed in the following The child is 4 years old 0.282*** paragraphs. (9.434) The child lives in urban area 0.071 75. Children who attend ECE programs were more (1.636) likely to be developmentally on track compared to The child attends ECE 0.370*** those who do not. Around 79 percent of the children who (8.036) attended ECE programs were developmentally on track The child's family is in second poorest 0.026 as opposed to only 63 percent of children who did attend quintile (0.643) any preschool (Table 6). The difference was particularly The child's family is in third poorest 0.120*** large in the literacy-numeracy domain, where around 48 quintile (2.660) percent of children who attended ECE programs were The child's family is in fourth poorest 0.140*** quintile (2.837) developmentally on track compared to only 15 percent of those who did not attend (Figure 32). The shares of The child's family is in the richest 0.291*** quintile (4.810) children who were developmentally on track in the other The child lives in Chittagong division −0.259*** three domains were also higher for those who attended (−4.504) ECE, but the differences between the two groups were The child lives in Dhaka division −0.078 relatively small. Attendance in ECE programs is closely (−1.383) linked to children developing these critical skills in the The child lives in Khulna division 0.012 early years (World Bank 2014). (0.187) | 37 probability of being developmentally on track is highest in Dependent variable: Child is developmentally on track = 1 Rangpur and lowest in Barishal. A child living in Rangpur is The child lives in Rajshahi division −0.025 (−0.370) almost 31 percent more likely than a child living in Barishal The child lives in Rangpur division 0.307*** to be developmentally on track. (4.863) The child lives in Sylhet division −0.353*** 3.3.2 FINDINGS FROM A SAMPLE-BASED IMPACT (−5.336) EVALUATION OF AN ECE PROGRAM The education level of child's mother is 0.006 primary incomplete (0.130) 78. Child development assessment data from an The education level of child's mother is 0.078* ongoing impact evaluation of a small-scale ECE primary complete (1.664) program called EYPP implemented by Save the Children The education level of child's mother is 0.210*** secondary incomplete (5.018) International (SCI) provide further insights into the The education level of child's mother is 0.377*** factors affecting child development outcomes.32 The secondary or higher (5.715) child development outcomes data used in this evaluation Constant 0.005 are based on a school readiness assessment of individual (0.083) children conducted using SCI’s International Development Observations 8,145 and Early Learning Assessment (IDELA) instrument (Annex Note: Estimates are shown in marginal effects (that is, changes in outcome 4).33 While these data are not nationally representative, probability, whether a child is developmentally on track in at least three of four domains, with a unit of change of the covariate while keeping all other they are relatively recent and based on actual assessments variables constant). of individual children rather than on parental perceptions z-statistics in parentheses; ***p < 0.01, **p < 0.05, *p < 0.1. of child development as in the case of the MICS data. Hence, they enable us to make more direct inferences has a positive relationship with child development about the relationship between ECE attendance, child outcomes, with 4-year-old children more likely than characteristics, and child development outcomes. 3-year-olds to be developmentally on track. Attendance in ECE has a statistically significant positive effect on child development, whereby a child is 37 percent more likely to be developmentally on track if attending preschool, Table 8: Average IDELA score (out of total of 100) by holding all other factors constant. socioeconomic factors, 2018 77. Household wealth and mother’s education are also Mean Std. dev. important factors in determining a child’s development Overall 58 20.1 progress. A child’s probability of being developmentally Gender on track significantly increases with household wealth—a Male 56.8 19.6 child from the richest wealth quintile is 29 percent more Female 59.2 20.5 likely to be developmentally on track compared to a child Wealth quintile from the poorest quintile. Mother’s education level also Poorest 56.1 20.8 plays a significant role, with the probability of the child Second poorest 56.3 20.2 being developmentally on track increasing progressively Middle 57.2 18.9 with mother’s education level. A child with a mother who Second richest 56.4 20.1 completed primary education is around 8 percent more Richest 64.7 19.0 likely to be developmentally on track compared to a ECE attendance mother with no education, while the probability increases Attending 63.4 17.3 to 38 percent with a mother who completed secondary or Not attending 41.8 19.3 higher education. In terms of geographic location, a child’s Source: Based on authors’ calculation using EYPP 2018 data. 32 The impact evaluation is being conducted with preschool children in 100 schools in the district of Meherpur in Bangladesh. 33 See Annex 4 for more details on IDELA child development domains and interpretation. | 38 79. The findings on overall child development Table 9: Average IDELA score across the six domains, 2018 outcomes based on data from this impact evaluation Domain Mean Std. dev. are qualitatively similar to the findings obtained from Gross and fine motor development 69.3 26.7 the MICS data. The average IDELA score for children in this sample was around 58 (compared to a maximum Emergent literacy and language 55.2 25.1 possible score of 100), indicating significant scope for Emergent numeracy 56.3 19.3 improving the developmental outcomes of these children Social-emotional development 51.2 22.8 (Table 8). Female children had an average score of 59, Executive function 68.3 28.2 slightly higher than the score for their male counterparts. Approaches to learning 77.5 26.0 However, the disparities in average score become starker Total IDELA score 58.0 20.1 when considering household income. Children from the Source: Based on authors’ calculation using EYPP 2018 data. poorest families scored an average mark of 56 while those from the richest families had an average score of around 65. skills (51.2), emergent literacy and language (55.2), and The largest difference in average score is observed when emergent numeracy (56.3). On the other hand, children on considering ECE attendance. Children who attended an average scored higher on approaches to learning (77.5), ECE program scored on average 21 points higher than those gross and fine motor development (69.3), and executive who did not attend any preschool program. function (68.3). 80. Domain-specific findings based on the impact 81. An examination of disparities across genders, wealth evaluation data are also largely consistent with the quintiles, and geographic areas also shows results finding from the MICS data and suggest that there is similar to those based on the MICS data. Female children significant scope for improving children’s development slightly outperform their male counterparts, particularly in across all domains (Table 9). The impact evaluation data the two domains of gross and fine motor development and allow for the disaggregation of outcomes into six domains: emergent literacy and language (where they score 4 points gross and fine motor development, emergent literacy higher than males) (Figure 33). Across income quintiles, and language, emergent numeracy, social-emotional the disparities are stark between children from the poorest development, executive function, and approaches to and richest families in all domains, with scores consistently learning. Out of the six domains, the three areas where higher with income. The difference in average score between children had the lowest average score were socioemotional children from the richest and poorest households is 11.4 Figure 33: Child development outcomes across domains, 2018 (a) By gender (b) By income quintiles Gross and Fine Motor Development Gross and Fine Motor Development 71% Emergent 67% Emergent Approaches Literacy Approaches Literacy to learning 67% and to learning and 57% Language 53% Language 78% 77% 53% 75% 68% 56% 69% 51% 57% Emergent 56% Emergent Executive Numeracy Executive 66% Numeracy Function 52% Function 49% Social-emotional Development Social-emotional Development Perfect Score Male Female Perfect Score Poorest Second poorest Middle Second richest Richest Source: Authors’ estimates using EYPP 2018 data. | 39 points in the emergent literacy and language domain, 9.3 83. The analyses show that gender, parental education, points in gross and fine motor development, 8.4 points in and household wealth are significant determinants emergent numeracy, 7.5 points in the executive function of child development outcomes—findings that are domain, 6.0 points in socioemotional development, and 5.0 consistent with those based on the MICS data. Holding points in approaches to learning. Nonetheless, even among all other factors constant, regression analysis shows that the most well-off families, there remains significant scope if a child is female, then the IDELA score increases by 2.4 to improve child development outcomes in all six domains. points compared to a male child. Parents’ education levels also have a positive and statistically significant relationship with scores. If a child’s mother has completed secondary Figure 34: Child development outcomes across education, then the IDELA score on average increases by domains by EYPP participation, 2018 9 points compared to a mother who has not completed Gross and Fine Motor primary education, holding all other factors constant. Development Similarly, if a child’s father completes secondary education, the IDELA score on average increases 7 points compared 75% to if he had no primary education. Household income has Approaches 51% Emergent Literacy and a positive impact on a child’s development score—those to learning 83% 62% Language from the richest quintile score on average 6.3 points higher 62% 36% than those from the poorest quintile. The presence of 42% older children in the family tends to have a negative and 54% significant effect on the score, that is, for every additional Executive 61% Emergent 73% 38% sibling between the ages of 7 and 15 years, the IDELA score Function Numeracy 56% reduces by 1.3 points, holding all other factors constant. 84. As expected, participation in ECE has a significant Social-emotional Development and positive impact on a child’s development. Holding Perfect Score Attends ECE other factors constant, a child who attends the EYPP Doesn’t attend ECE program on average scored 21.4 points higher than a Source: Authors’ estimates using EYPP 2018 data. child not attending the program (Table 10). These findings are similar to the MICS which also substantiates that 82. The largest disparities in average child development attendance in ECE programs has a significant and positive scores are between children who have participated in impact on child development outcomes. ECE and those who have not. Children who are enrolled in ECE have significantly better performance in all domains Table 10: Factors affecting total child development scores and their average IDELA scores are between 17 and 26 points higher than the scores for children who do not Dependent variable: Total IDELA scores IDELA score attend ECE (Figure 34). The differences are particularly The child is a female 2.361*** large in the three domains where overall average scores are (3.025) the lowest and which are critical for school readiness: fine The child attends ECE 21.397*** motor development, emergent literacy and language, and (18.627) emergent numeracy. For instance, children who attend the The education level of child's mother is 2.791* EYPP had an average score of 75.4 in the gross and fine motor primary complete (1.875) development domain, a score of 62 in the emergent literacy The education level of child's mother is 4.345*** secondary complete (3.150) and language domain, and a score of 61 in the numeracy domain. On the other hand, among children who did not The education level of child's mother is at 8.754*** least higher secondary complete (3.949) attend EYPP, the average score stood at 51 for the gross The education level of child's father is 1.017 and fine motor development domain, 36 for the emergent primary complete (0.991) literacy and language domain, and 42 for the numeracy The education level of child's father is 3.221*** domain. secondary complete (3.048) | 40 85. Using an IDELA score of 75 as the benchmark,34 only Dependent variable: Total IDELA scores IDELA score around 22 percent of the surveyed 5-year-olds are found The education level of child's father is at 6.720*** least higher secondary complete (3.993) to be developmentally on track (Figure 35). This figure is much lower than the corresponding figure for children Number of 7- to 15-year-old children in −1.319** the family (−2.269) aged 3–4 years based on the MICS data (65 percent) and The child's family is in second poorest 0.766 suggests that school readiness is a major issue of concern quintile (0.586) for a large percentage of children entering primary schools. The child's family is in third poorest 2.458* In particular, a high percentage of children are not meeting quintile (1.861) developmental targets in the domains of emergent The child's family is in fourth poorest 0.121 literacy and language, numeracy, and socioemotional quintile (0.083) development. Adequate development in these domains The child's family is in the richest quintile 6.276*** (4.403) is critically important for cognitive development and for Constant 33.900*** attaining advanced learning skills. (18.688) 86. Among the children included in the impact Observations 1,798 evaluation, female children, children from the richest R-squared 0.277 quintile, and ECE participants are more likely to be Note: Estimates are based on ordinary least square (OLS) regression analysis, that is, the dummy variable compares to the reference group; positive developmentally on track (Figure 36). These findings regression coefficient means that IDELA score is higher for the dummy are similar to those for 3–4-year-olds based on the MICS variable affiliation than for the reference group; a negative regression coefficient means that score is lower than the reference group, holding all data. The difference is particularly large between ECE other factors constant. participants and nonparticipants: while around 27 percent Robust t-statistics in parentheses; ***p < 0.01, **p < 0.05, *p < 0.1. of children enrolled in ECE programs are developmentally Figure 35: Share of children developmentally on track across IDELA domains (%) 70% 65% 55% 27% 19% 17% 22% Gross and Emergent Emergent Social-emotional Executive Approaches to Overall Fine Motor Literacy and Numeracy Development Function learning Development language Source: Authors’ estimates using EYPP 2018 data. Figure 36: Share of children developmentally on track by socioeconomic factors and ECE attendance (%) 35.0 27.4 24.0 20.0 22.0 21.0 20.1 17.5 16.1 4.4 Male Female Total Poorest Second Poorest Third Poorest Fourth Poorest Richest Attends Doesn’t Quintile Quintile Quintile Quintile ECE attend ECE Gender Household Income ECE attendance Source: Authors’ estimates using EYPP 2018 data. 34 Although there are no official benchmarks for what constitutes proficiency on a given IDELA item, Save the Children informally uses a score of 75 percent on the overall assessment and within individual domains as an indication of mastery or developmentally on track. | 41 on track, the corresponding figure for ECE nonparticipants Table 11: Factors affecting total child development is only 4 percent. scores 87. The factors significantly associated with the Dependent variable: Child is developmentally on track = 1 probability of a child being developmentally on Variables track are the same as the significant determinants The child is a female 0.164** of child development outcomes discussed earlier— (2.353) gender, parental education, household wealth, and The child attends ECE 1.173*** ECE participation (Table 11). Holding all other factors (10.888) constant, a female child is 16 percent more likely to be The education level of child's mother 0.273 developmentally on track compared to a male child. If is primary complete (1.471) a mother has a secondary education, then the child is The education level of child's mother 0.457*** 46 percent more likely to be developmentally on track is secondary complete (2.802) compared to a child of a mother with no or below primary The education level of child's mother 0.655*** education. This probability rises to 66 percent if the mother is at least higher secondary complete (3.117) completes higher secondary education. Similarly, children The education level of child's father is −0.206** from the richest quintile are 33 percent more likely to be primary complete (−2.211) developmentally on track compared to those from the The education level of child's father is 0.106 poorest quintile. And finally, children participating in ECE secondary complete (1.064) are significantly more likely to be developmentally on track The education level of child's father is 0.243 than nonparticipants, holding all other factors constant. at least higher secondary complete (1.473) Number of 7- to 15-year-old children −0.135** in the family (−2.161) 3.4 POLICY OPTIONS The child's family is in second poorest −0.091 quintile (−0.806) The child's family is in third poorest 0.041 88. ECE centers need to be well resourced with quality quintile (0.337) TLMs to provide quality services. The provision of The child's family is in fourth poorest −0.221* teaching, learning, and play materials remains inadequate, quintile (−1.705) especially in preprimary classes of government schools, The child's family is in the richest 0.331*** which may impede the implementation of quality ECE. quintile (3.020) MoPME needs to ensure that the budget allocated for Constant −2.209*** teaching, learning, and play materials in preprimary (−10.722) classes is effectively allocated and utilized by the Observations 1,798 government schools. The government may also consider Source: Estimates are shown in marginal effects (that is, changes in outcome support to low-resourced private and religious ECD centers probability, that is, whether a child is developmentally on track, with a unit of change of the covariate while keeping all other variables constant. in areas where government ECE provision is limited, either Robust z-statistics in parentheses; ***p < 0.01, **p < 0.05, *p < 0.1. by directly providing them with materials or by providing funds to acquire materials. Tapping into NGO models that use low-cost and sustainable play materials and mobilizing community in-kind donations are also good means for providing supplementary materials for nongovernment ECE centers. However, a proper monitoring system needs to be in place to ensure effective utilization of teaching- learning and play materials at the schools. | 42 89. Bangladesh needs to improve its ECE teaching 91. A robust M&E system is needed to monitor and strength, in terms of numbers, qualifications, and evaluate the performance of the ECE system in professional development opportunities. There is a compliance with standards. First, there is a need to need to urgently complete the recruitment of preprimary improve data collection on ECE provision and child teachers in government schools and reduce the average development outcomes at the school and national STR in these classrooms. In light of plans to expand PPE levels. At the school level, there is a need to ensure that to two years, MoPME needs to conduct a teacher needs principals and teachers are monitoring child learning and assessment for the additional year of ECE. There is an development outcomes and that this is communicated to even greater need for enhancing the capacity of teachers parents. Monitoring should ideally also include support in terms of academic qualifications and ECE-focused and specific feedback to teachers and centers to help training. With the new teacher recruitment policy in them improve. This could be facilitated by engaging place, the minimum qualification for female preprimary school management committees in the process. At the teachers has been raised to bachelor’s degree. While this national level, the annual school census would need to policy reform is expected to result in the recruitment of be reviewed and improved to enable the collection of preprimary teachers with better academic credentials, more comprehensive data on the quality of ECE inputs there is nonetheless a large pool of preprimary teachers in government and nongovernment centers. Large-scale with only a higher secondary degree or below. To upgrade surveys, which track child development outcomes, could their teaching skills, MoPME and the DPE must expedite also be implemented every two to three years to help its teacher training plan for existing PPE teachers and new the government understand the performance of the ECE entrants and provide them with appropriate refresher system. Second, there is a need for MoPME and the DPE to training in the future. There is also a need to develop pre- develop clear guidelines on the roles and responsibilities service training programs35 for potential PPE teachers of staff involved in the PPE monitoring process. It will also so that the quality of the incoming preschool workforce be critical to improve the monitoring capacity of staff can be improved. Pre-service diploma and skills training by providing adequate human resources and trainings. programs can be offered in partnerships with universities Third, there is a need to ensure that M&E data are properly and/or technical training institutions. utilized and that the feedback loop is complete—from schools to district officers to high-level officials and back to 90. The capacity of government training institutions schools, parents, and communities. This will require public needs to be enhanced. This would require upgrading dissemination of school and child performance data to the teacher training centers, such as the PTIs and URCs, encourage community engagement and accountability of to make them well-resourced with an adequate number schools and district education offices. of qualified instructors and appropriate facilities. An immediate requirement would be to complete a needs 92. A quality assurance mechanism that covers both assessment of training centers, considering the expansion public and private provision of ECE needs to be of PPE planned for the coming years. The acute shortage developed and implemented. Currently, there is little of instructors could be addressed in the short run through information on the quality of ECE provision in the private contractual deployment of trainers while also focusing on sector. For centers providing ECE, the government may building a pool of permanent trainers to deliver different establish a national accreditation system to ensure types of training in the mid to long run. compliance with quality standards in preschools. 35 Currently, there are no provisions for diploma/certificate programs in ECD/ECE for teachers in Bangladesh. | 43 | 44 4 Chapter GOVERNANCE AND MANAGEMENT OF ECE IN BANGLADESH 4.1 CURRENT ECE POLICIES AND GOVERNMENT PROGRAMS 93. During the past decade, Bangladesh has developed a number of important policies related to ECE. These policies have evolved over the past decade to reflect the growing recognition of the importance of PPE and have attempted to provide a framework to expand preprimary enrollment while also ensuring quality and equity. Key policies and operational documents include the National Children Policy 2011 (NCP 2011) and the Comprehensive Policy for Early Child Care and Development 2013 (CPECCD 2013) prepared by MoWCA, the NEP 2010 prepared by Ministry of Education (MoE), and the Operational Framework for Preprimary Education prepared by MoPME. 94. The Operational Framework for Preprimary Education established national standards for the various service providers of PPE in Bangladesh. MoPME issued the Operational Framework in March 2008 after consultation with stakeholders to address the lack of standards in PPE. At that point, a variety of preprimary programs existed, including those run by NGOs and informal ‘baby classes’ at primary schools to serve the younger siblings of primary education students, but there were no policies or structures to guide these programs. Since it was established in 2008, the Operational Framework has not been officially updated or superseded by a policy intended to replace it. | 45 95. The Operational Framework established MoPME as 98. A Center Management Committee (CMC) is to the lead ministry for PPE. As per the framework, MoPME manage each preprimary school, under a primary is responsible for developing the PPE policy framework, school or an NGO. The Operational Framework states facilitating coordination among stakeholders and service that a CMC will comprise seven to nine members, who will providers, setting standards, mobilizing resources, be under the management of the existing primary school and ensuring that children’s rights are protected. The (if it is attached to a primary school) or a local NGO. The document also establishes the short-term goal of PPE CMC Chairperson will be a head teacher from the primary access for all 5-year-olds, with priority given to children school, one representative will be from a local NGO, two from marginalized population groups and vulnerable from existing school management committees, two backgrounds, and the long-term goal of access for all 3- to parents, one preprimary teacher, and two other optional 5-year-olds. members. 96. However, five years after the Operational Framework 99. Monitoring and supervision mechanisms for was approved, MoWCA issued the CPECCD, which gives preprimary programs are not specified in the MoWCA the lead coordination and supervision role for Operational Framework. The framework states that all early childhood activities. The contents of this policy supervision and monitoring mechanisms are to be as well as the lack of clarity on MoPME’s and MoWCA’s “developed cooperatively with the service-providing respective roles and relationships are discussed later in NGOs.” However, in practice, supervision objectives this chapter. and procedures largely follow those of the overall GPS monitoring system which involves the primary unit at the 97. The Operational Framework for Pre-Primary DPE, the upazila education offices, and the URCs. Education also lays out developmental milestones for the major development domains, a curricular 100. NEP 2010 states that one year of PPE is to be framework including learning objectives, and content, established, with the long-term goal of two years of teacher training, and service delivery standards. preprimary. The policy recognizes PPE as a core part of The framework affirms that the agency responsible for the country’s education system. Preprimary is meant to developing the PPE curriculum and learning materials is prepare children for formal education and inspire them to the NCTB of MoE. It also states that a core group of master be excited about learning. Four strategies are described: teacher trainers is to be developed by education institutions (a) teaching will be delivered through various modalities, active in ECD and that teacher trainers should have some such as games, songs, and simple educational materials; education in child development and preferably hold a (b) teaching will be characterized by love and care while bachelor’s degree in preprimary or primary education. ensuring children’s safety; (c) posts for teachers and Recognizing that many recruited teachers will be from number of classrooms will be expanded at every school; rural areas and have low educational attainment, they and (d) provision will include programs of religious are to receive training on child care, child development, institutions currently overseen by the Ministry of Religious and developing learning materials. An initial training Affairs which combine religious instruction with modern period should be followed by regular refresher training. No education. No other details on service providers to be targets are specified for numbers of teachers to be trained. engaged in the expansion are mentioned. The policy states Details on the duration, location, and specific content of that this is a long-term initiative that will be implemented the training are not offered. Preprimary class hours are in phases; no target date for implementation is mentioned. to be expanded to two to three hours per day, for five to The NEP does not appear to contradict the Operational six days per week. This is roughly in accordance with a Framework, issued two years earlier, and the two policies minimum international standard of at least 15 hours per can be seen as complementary. week (Neuman and Devercelli 2013). Class sizes should 101. The National Children Policy 2011 ensures access ideally be 20 to 30 students with two teachers, also in to education for children regardless of gender, special line with international standards for child-teacher ratios needs, religious, or ethnicity. This MoWCA policy, which (Neuman and Devercelli 2013). | 46 seeks to ensure children’s rights from birth to age 18, 104. Launched in July 2018, PEDP4 aims to provide calls for PPE to be strengthened and expanded. Children quality preprimary and primary education through an with disabilities should be mainstreamed in education inclusive, efficient, and equitable education system. if possible and special education programs should be PEDP4 covers three key components: quality; access and established if mainstreaming is not possible. Treatment participation; and management, governance, and finance. and rehabilitation programs should be set up for children The goals for PPE are improving school readiness and with disabilities, and educational services and facilities enabling the smooth transition of 5-year-old children to should be accessible to children regardless of disability primary school. While PEDP3 focused largely on expansion, status. PEDP4’s orientation is toward improving quality. PEDP4 preprimary interventions focus on improving the physical 102. A series of PEDPs managed by DPE, the environment, reducing the STR, strengthening teacher implementing arm of MoPME, have addressed the capacity, and delivering play and learning materials so issue of PPE expansion. While PEDP1 (1997–2003) did not that all government schools offer PPE in accordance with include PPE, PEDP2 (2004–2011) included a small-scale the established standards. Activities to achieve these goals pilot preprimary program run by NGOs and administered include constructing new classrooms, recruitment and by MoPME. PEDP3 (2012–2017) and the ongoing PEDP4 induction training for teachers from schools exceeding (2018–2023) both cover PPE as well as primary education established STRs, timely provision of learning materials and are described in detail in the following paragraphs. required to deliver the curriculum, and provision of 103. PEDP3 committed to provide one year of PPE funds to schools to procure additional learning and play before Grade 1 entry and laid out plans for expansion.36 materials. Supervision and M&E are to be strengthened While PEDP2 recognized the need for the government through capacity building of head teachers, UEOs, and to engage in preprimary education, PEDP3 focused district primary education officers and revision of the more on the operational aspects of how to engage in APSC format to collect adequate data on PPE. the subsector. The strategy was to gradually expand 105. On the other hand, the CPECCD, adopted by preprimary enrollment by offering preprimary programs at MoWCA in 2013, emphasizes the need for a more all GPSs and engaging NGOs and private sectors as service multidisciplinary and coordinated approach to ECD. providers in areas where GPSs did not exist or where GPSs It recognizes a ‘critical need’ to establish coordination did not have enough space to run PPE classes. NGOs were mechanisms among service providers in health, education, also engaged in teacher training. The expansion was to social protection, and child protection for young children take place according to an access-quality-equity agenda. to avoid duplication and wastage of resources. It Other elements of the system that needed to be addressed recognizes the importance of integrating and converging included teacher training, supervision and monitoring, these services and bringing together all relevant management and information systems, and reporting. ministries, organizations, and international development PEDP3 was revised in 2015 and included the objective actors under one platform. MoWCA states that it took the of making preprimary classes operational in all primary lead “to frame a coordinated policy with the objective schools. The plan states that the future goals of preprimary of creating a common understanding and expectations expansion are to focus on a minimum standard of quality among the organizations involved in Early Child Care and in all schools (in particular NNGPSs) and on areas with the Development (ECCD) activities and to further facilitate greatest education disparities. NNGPSs are supposed to collaboration, cooperation, and coordination among all have dedicated preprimary classes, trained teachers, and stakeholders” (as cited in CPECCD, page 3). The policy learning materials; use learning assessment tools; and document states that the plan was approved following a follow child-teacher ratio standards. The government- participatory process involving relevant government, NGO, NGO collaboration guidelines were also revised. development partners, and private sector stakeholders. 36 PEDP3 identified eight key elements to promote quality and establish graded standards to achieve quality. Quality elements are physical environment, learning environment, staffing, monitoring and supervision, parent and community involvement, training and professional development, management, and administrative. Standards related to these elements are on a gradation, encompassing Level 1: minimum/basic, Level 2: desired/medium, and Level 3: preferred/ exemplary. The graded standards recognize that quality takes time to achieve and that what is realistic to achieve varies from school to school based on its capacities and resources. PEDP3 defined an upazila (subdistricts) or thana, in the case of cities, as the unit of PPE expansion. | 47 106. The CPECCD takes a holistic approach to child The ministries seem to operate in parallel rather than development and also emphasizes access to inclusive in overlapping mandates—MoWCA mainly focuses on services for disadvantaged children. The policy covers health, nutrition, and parenting, while MoPME focuses on the period from conception to age 8 and thus includes education, including preprimary. MoPME informs MoWCA the target age group for ECE as well. It seeks to ensure of the work it is undertaking in ECE; however, interviews that all children realize their rights of survival, safety, suggest that coordination between the two ministries care, development, and education. Its strategic principles remains weak. include holistic development; continuity of care and 109. There is no apparent contradiction between services; parenting; engagement and ownership of the MoWCA’s and MoPME’s policies related to education, community; age and cultural appropriateness; inclusion; largely because there are few specifics in MoWCA’s equality, equity, and mainstreaming in gender, and a policies. The latter emphasizes inclusive services (in life cycle approach. For the 3–6 age group, among other all sectors, not just education), which is also a priority strategies, the policy calls for improving the quality of PPE for MoPME. The largest difference may lie in MoWCA’s and creating opportunities for all children to participate emphasis on coordinated and comprehensive services in PPE. A section on special needs calls for services (again, in all sectors, not just education), which is not and infrastructure for children with special needs. The prominent in education sector policies. policy also calls for using multilingual education with a preference for mother tongue for children from linguistic 110. The current Early Learning for Child Development minority groups. It outlines the duties and responsibilities Project (ELCDP-3) under MoWCA aims to make the of relevant stakeholders, which are described in the next CPECCD operational at the national and subnational section of this chapter. levels. The project is being implemented by the Bangladesh Shishu Academy (BSA), MoWCA, and UNICEF 107. Although the CPECCD states that it was prepared from January 2018 to December 2020. Specific goals in alignment with the Operational Framework and include strengthening coordination mechanisms for other policy documents, it seems to contradict the effective policy implementation and strengthening Operational Framework’s establishment of MoPME as institutional capacities of stakeholders. The project the lead coordination body for preprimary activities. document states that the plan assumes that a dedicated The CPECCD outlines the duties and responsibilities of team at BSA/MoWCA will be available to coordinate and various stakeholders. It describes MoWCA’s responsibility follow up with all stakeholders and that all stakeholders will for “total coordination and observation of all ECCD have focal persons actively and continuously participating activities under this policy,” which would seem to remove in implementation at the national and subnational levels. MoPME as lead coordination actor for PPE as established It calls for establishing committees at the national and in the Operational Framework, although this is never made subnational levels, identifying one focal person and an explicit. It describes MoPME’s role as provider of PPE, but alternate focal person at each of the 15 relevant ministries reserves the authority for leadership and coordination and developing and implementing an orientation package with MoWCA. for committee members and focal persons. It also calls 108. In practice, MoPME is the lead ministry for all for ministries, districts, and upazilas to develop costed aspects of PPE, not just the lead provider of PPE. implementation plans and implementation status reports. | 48 4.2 KEY ISSUES IN GOVERNANCE AND MANAGEMENT OF ECE 4.2.1 GOVERNANCE AND MANAGEMENT PPE and ECD in Bangladesh, reflecting the current reality STRUCTURE IN ECE rather than the roles laid out in CPECCD. The figure is not a comprehensive mapping, but it clearly shows that there is 111. A large number of government actors are little to no overlap or coordination in practice between the responsible for ECD in Bangladesh, but there is little PPE actors and the rest of the major ECD actors. coordination between actors engaged in PPE and those in other sectors. The term ECD encompasses ECE 112. Among these various entities, MoWCA and MoPME but is much broader and typically includes the sectors of are the two main ministries involved in ECD provision. health, nutrition, child protection, and social protection. 113. MoWCA is the lead coordination and supervision The CPECCD uses the term ECCD (interchangeable with body for ECD for children aged 0–8 years in the country ECD, the preferred term of many in the field) to cover the according to the CPECCD. It is responsible for coordinating period from conception through age 8. The policy lists between ministries, agencies, and international actors. 15 government ministries as having responsibilities for A National ECCD Coordination Committee has been ECCD,37 but there are no budget coordination mechanisms established to coordinate and implement activities, with between these ministries. Figure 37 shows the key actors in Figure 37: Key actors in Preprimary and ECCD in Bangladesh Key Actors in Pre-Primary Education Key Actors in Early Childhood Development (excluding PPE) MINISTRY OF Local NGOs, MINISTRY OF PRIMARY AND INGOs, private WOMEN AND Local NGOs & MASS EDUCATION sector CHILD AFFAIRS INGOs DIRECTORATE District BANGLADESH OF PRIMARY Education SHISHU EDUCATION Offices ACADEMY MINISTRY OF HEALTH & FAMILY WELFARE Upazila Bangladesh PPE Division education ECD Network office 13 other ministries Head teachers & teachers 37 Technical Assistance Project Proposal of Early Learning for Child Development Project, 3rd Phase, Government of People’s Republic of Bangladesh. The 15 ministries are Women and Children Affairs; Health and Family Welfare; Primary and Mass Education; Education; Cultural Affairs; Social Welfare; Local Government, Rural Development, and Cooperatives; Chittagong Hill Tracts Affairs; Religious Affairs; Food; Disaster Management and Relief; Information; Youth and Sports; Labour and Employment; and Home Affairs. | 49 the Minister of MoWCA as committee head. The minister Welfare, Ministry of Chittagong Hill Tracts Affairs, Ministry is to ensure that ECCD is on the agenda of any meeting of Religious Affairs, Ministry of Food, Ministry of Disaster of the National Council of Women and Children, which is Management and Relief, Ministry of Information, Ministry chaired by the Prime Minister. A National ECCD Technical of Youth and Sports, Ministry of Labour and Employment, Committee comprising experienced ECCD experts provides and Ministry of Home Affairs. technical support to MoWCA and includes NGO partners. 117. Local government bodies under the Ministry Each ministry with responsibility for ECCD (described in of Local Government, Rural Development, and the following paragraph) sends a quarterly progress report Cooperatives are to play a role in implementing ECCD to MoWCA. services, but it is not clear whether this element of 114. The BSA, an autonomous organization under the CPECCD has been implemented. Local government MoWCA, is responsible for ensuring quality standards divisions such as district councils, municipalities, Upazila and implementing ECCD programs under the purview Parishad, and Union Parishad are supposed to integrate of MoWCA, although in practice none of these ECCD in their programs, with the Union Parishad as a responsibilities include any PPE engagements. BSA is focal point. Local elected women are supposed to form currently delivering ECD activities in 16 upazilas, but these ECCD programs with assistance from service provider activities focus on health and nutrition and do not include organizations and to coordinate local ECCD activities. But PPE activities. While the CPECCD states that integrated the CPECCD policy does not clarify what types of programs services are a priority, at present neither MoWCA nor are to be formed and whether these will include any BSA engages with MoPME to offer integrated services to preprimary programs. children through preprimary programs. In practice, MoPME 118. The NGO sector and international agencies are is the lead ministry for PPE, despite the CPECCD stating major actors in ECE. The CPECCD states that NGOs are that MoWCA is the lead ministry for all early childhood to deliver services in consultation with the government, activities. international organizations are to provide capacity 115. MoPME is the apex body for all aspects of building, and the private sector is to support ECCD through preprimary, primary, and nonformal education. The corporate social responsibility (CSR). The Bangladesh ECD ministry leads policy formulation and manages the Network (BEN) is an informal network of 150 stakeholders PPE sector through a directorate—the DPE—which is including government, nongovernment, and international responsible for the administration and quality assurance organizations working together to promote children’s of one year of PPE in all government and government- holistic development. The network was launched in 2005 supported schools. Under the ministry, there are attached and advocates for policy development, builds capacity, agencies. The NCTB holds the responsibility for curriculum and generates and shares knowledge. It was created in and textbook development, while the DPE distributes the response to and in recognition of the large role played books to schools. MoPME informs MoWCA of the work it by NGOs in the early childhood sector in Bangladesh. is undertaking in ECE, aligned with the CECCDP 2013. Its representatives are required to attend coordination Annexes 5 and 6 show the organogram of PPE provision meetings organized by MoWCA. It plays an important role under the MoE and MoWCA, respectively. in assisting MoWCA in selecting local NGOs to provide ECD services. BEN has collaborated with the GoB on 116. Several other ministries and agencies also have key initiatives including development of the Preprimary responsibilities for ECCD. The NCTB within the MoE is Operational Framework, the curriculum, the teacher responsible for developing the curriculum and learning training curriculum, and government-NGO collaboration materials for PPE. The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare guidelines. is to include ECCD in its services for pregnant women and children. The Ministry of Cultural Affairs is to take up 119. Child daycare centers are another option for early initiatives for the cultural and intellectual development year care and education for some families. There are a of children, including book publishing. Other ministries range of center-based providers, including government, bearing responsibilities include the Ministry of Social private for-profit, private non-profit, and community | 50 based. MoWCA runs (and is in the process of establishing) 121. The teacher recruitment and professional just under 100 child care centers. BRAC Institute of development processes raise concerns about the Education Development offers community-based Play quality of preschool education in government schools. Lab Model centers. However, there are few centers relative Until 2018, all male primary school teachers, including to the increasing numbers of mothers of young children PPE teachers, were required to have at least a bachelor’s in the labor market.38 Currently, there is no government degree and all female teachers were required to have at accredited training program for child caregivers to ensure least a higher secondary degree (Grade 12/equivalent) quality and integration of ECD aspects in these daycares following the DPE Teacher Recruitment Plan 2013. The (IFC 2019). lower qualification requirement for female teachers was part of the government’s efforts to attract females into 4.2.2 HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT IN teaching and to boost girls’ education (Rahman, T., Nakata, GOVERNMENT PROVISION OF ECE S., Rahman, M and Nomura, S., 2017). While this led to a significant increase in female primary school teachers, 120. PPE teacher recruitment for GPSs is a long process concerns remained regarding the implications for the involving several entities, falling short of a needs- quality of teaching in schools. As a result, in 2019, MoPME based hiring approach. The preprimary school teacher introduced revisions to the recruitment guidelines which recruitment process is led by the DPE in coordination with changed the required minimum academic qualifications the district primary education office (DPEO) and other for all primary school teachers to at least a bachelor’s relevant divisions. As per the DPE directive, the DPEOs degree.40 In addition to having relatively low educational conduct a needs assessment of teachers for government qualifications, most recruited teachers do not have schools in each subdistrict (upazila). A consolidated specializations in PPE and receive only a brief induction teacher needs assessment is then prepared by the DPE. training of around two weeks. Teachers without a sound However, regardless of the total teacher demand following knowledge of holistic child development may not be able the report, the DPE is only able to advertise posts to facilitate a play-based, developmentally appropriate against the annual teacher recruitment target, which is program and properly implement the curriculum. predetermined based on the ongoing fiscal year budget. Against the available posts, eligible candidates appear 122. Chronic shortages in the availability of trainers of for a two-stage testing, involving first a written exam teachers further impede effective and timely training followed by an interview for those passing the written of preschool teachers. The PTIs and URCs are reported exam. The interview committee—headed by the Deputy to suffer from a chronic shortage of instructors, which has Commissioner and the district primary education officer led to delays in the implementation of preprimary teacher as member secretary and two other members appointed training and resulted in a large pool of untrained teachers. by government—assesses the candidates based on their A review conducted by DPE found that the current vacancy academic qualifications, presentation skills, personality, rate in the PTIs was more than one-third of the sanctioned general knowledge, and other qualities sought among posts (DPE 2019). Even after filling these posts, the PTIs teachers. The final decision for hiring and deployment is would not be capable of completing the training for then taken by the central committee at the DPE.39 This long preprimary and primary teachers, as additional instructors process leads to preprimary teacher shortages in many and double shift operations would be needed to deliver schools. The DPE is currently in the process of recruiting the training. Moreover, the assessment found that facilities 26,000 additional teachers to support its one-year PPE (including furniture, teaching facilities, and information program. and communication technology [ICT]) were in short supply at the PTIs. 38 “Lack of Daycare Centres Frustrates Working Women.” The Daily Star. March 8, 2017. https://www.thedailystar.net/business/lack-daycare-centres-frustrates- working-women-1372447. 39 The central committee for the recruitment of primary school teacher is headed by Director General of the DPE while a third-party firm oversees the overall management, coordination, and quality assurance of the recruitment process. 40 This announcement was published in the government’s gazette in September 2019. | 51 4.2.3 QUALITY ASSURANCE, MONITORING, AND concepts and skills young children should develop at EVALUATION various developmental stages (see Box 4). 123. The GoB has established a number of quality 125. MoPME endorsed an official preprimary curriculum standards related to infrastructure and ECE service for use in public schools in 2013. The curriculum is delivery. These include standards governing school evidenced based, child centered, and play based; rooted construction (for example structural soundness) and in the local culture and tradition; and encourages family other facilities (such as potable water and toilets), teacher involvement. The government has an action plan for qualifications, and class size. Key documents describing curriculum revision for preprimary to Grade 5 to ensure standards include the Operational Framework for Preprimary Education, Infrastructural Guideline for PEDP4, PEDP4 Program Document, and the Teacher Recruitment Plan 2019. Box 3 summarizes the key standards for public BOX 4: preprimary programs. Early Learning Development 124. Another set of key quality standards adopted by Standards (ELDS) the GoB is the ELDS. MoWCA and MoPME adopted the ELDS in 2016 and since then all other relevant ministries have also adopted these standards. The ELDS outline the The ELDS are intended to provide guidance to families, ECD caregivers/teachers, and administrators on what young children (typically in the 0–6 age group) are expected BOX 3: to know and do at various stages of Key Preprimary quality development. Numerous countries have standards in Bangladesh developed and adopted their own ELDS in accordance with established concepts about child development and the country’s goals and values. Bangladesh’s ELDS outline the Teacher • qualifications: Minimum competencies that young children should qualification for teachers is a tertiary possess at various ages and stages, from birth degree. Certificate or diploma in education to 96 months. They propose development (not focused on ECE) must be completed indicators for children (such as behaviors within three years of hiring for a permanent and skills they should exhibit) and strategies position. for caregivers to encourage these behaviors. • Curriculum: Play-based curriculum covering They cover four domains: physical and multiple developmental domains. motor, social and emotional, language and • Class size: 20–30 students with two teachers. communication, and cognitive development. There are several subdomains within each • Class hours: 2–3 hours per day, 5–6 days per domain. The content of the Bangladesh ELDS week. was validated under the GoB-supported • Area: Minimum 250 square feet of indoor Early Learning for Child Development Project space. (ELCDP-2) in 2013. These ELDS have been • Others: Potable water, hygienic facilities, endorsed by 16 ministries. They have been and electricity and infrastructure standards used by the NCTB in the development of the same as primary schools. national preprimary curriculum and by a number of NGOs to inform the development of Source: Infrastructural Guideline for PEDP4 2019, PEDP4 Program their preprimary teacher learning packages. Document 2018, Teacher Recruitment Plan 2019; and Operational Framework for Pre-Primary Education 2008. See Annex 4 for details. | 52 the vertical alignment of the curricula across grades. The systematic monitoring mechanism for NGO-run ECE centers new curriculum is expected to be rolled out in 2021. by the government, it is not possible to estimate key ECE statistics such as the number of NGO-run ECE centers with 126. As monitoring and compliance mechanisms for ECE qualified teachers, the number of centers that implement centers are weak or not consistently enforced, the level the curriculum properly, and the number of centers that of compliance with standards cannot be determined. adhere to the prescribed child-teacher ratios. For public centers, UEOs or area education officers are supposed to conduct periodic monitoring visits but these 128. The GoB collects self-reported administrative data visits may be rare or not occur at all. Inspections may be on public, religious, and NGO-run and community- incidental to officers’ visits to the primary programs housed based ECE centers, but in a limited manner. The DPE at the same facility rather than focused on the preprimary conducts the APSC, which includes a section on PPE that programs. Within upazila education offices, area education collects school-level data on some limited aspects of offices, and public schools themselves, the attention may the sector, such as whether or not the school offers PPE, be focused on the quality of the primary programs (Islam, student enrollment, and number of PPE teachers. These Das, and Roy 2016). data provide information on retention trends and are used to make primary enrollment projections. 127. There is limited monitoring of the quality of ECE programs run by NGOs. While NGOs need to register to 129. Data on child development outcomes are not operate ECE centers, it is not clear if they need to obtain a collected. Some countries conduct school readiness separate registration for each individual center they operate. assessments of children who have completed PPE. Such Some NGOs have their own monitoring mechanisms—BRAC, assessments generally focus on holistic child development, for example, has its own quality assurance mechanisms covering cognitive, language, physical, and socioemotional and publishes an annual report on quality, which covers outcomes. The GoB does not collect data on child its preprimary school program. But because there is no development outcomes of preschool-age children. 4.3 SABER-ECD ANALYSIS OF BANGLADESH’S ECE SYSTEM 130. The World Bank’s SABER-ECD initiative proposes and regulatory framework to support ECE. The second a framework for analyzing the quality of a country’s refers to the development of standards for ECE services, policies and provisions for ECE. The SABER-ECD the monitoring of compliance with standards, and the framework covers all sectors involved in ECD: health, implementation of systems to monitor outcomes. The third education, social protection, and child protection. The refers to the coverage and scope of ECE programs offered main pillars of this framework are three policy goals (or in country. Within this framework, there are four stages objectives) for an effective ECE system: (a) Establishing an in the policy development continuum: (a) Latent (least Enabling Environment, (b) Monitoring and Assuring Quality, developed), (b) Emerging, (c) Established, and (d) Advanced and (c) Implementing Widely (World Bank 2013). Each (most developed). It should be noted that the SABER policy goal is associated with a set of policy levers, which analysis looks primarily at the existence of policies, not their are actions that a government can take to achieve the goal. implementation. The first goal refers to the existence of an adequate legal | 53 BOX 5: SABER–ECD Initiative Building upon their Education Strategy 2020, the World Bank’s Human Development Network launched SABER to help countries examine their education policies systematically. Using this approach, specific education policy domains have been identified to cover the span of education systems from early childhood to entry into the workforce. SABER-ECD is intended to serve as a diagnostic tool for helping policy makers identify gaps and areas in need of policy attention to promote healthy and robust development for all children. Although it is an education sector-led initiative, SABER-ECD is premised on a holistic view of early childhood development that sees early childhood development as taking place across several interlinked domains that span multiple sectors. Accordingly, the diagnostic tool looks at policies and provisions across various sectors which are relevant to early childhood development including health, education, social protection, and child protection. Since SABER-ECD was launched in 2010, more than 50 countries have participated in the initiative. SABER-ECD has allowed World Bank staff and policy makers in these countries to view their respective ECD systems through a comparative lens and identify policy options for strengthening ECD at the national and subnational levels. More information on SABER-ECD may be found at http://saber.worldbank.org/index.cfm. 131. The results of a SABER-ECD analysis focused on Table 12 shows the level of development of Bangladesh’s ECE Bangladesh’s educator sector show mixed progress.41 system using a modified SABER-ECD analytical framework. Table 12: Analyzing the development of Bangladesh’s ECE policies ECD policy goal Level of development Policy lever Level of development Legal framework Establishing an Enabling Inter-sectoral coordination Environment Established Finance Scope of programs Implementing Widely Coverage Emerging Equity Data availability Monitoring and Assuring Quality standards Quality Latent Compliance with standards Latent Emerging Established Advanced Legend: 41 Due to the ECE focus of this study, a full SABER-ECD analysis covering health and nutrition, education, social protection, and child protection was not conducted. SABER-ECD items pertaining to education were analyzed, while items covering other sectors were excluded. Given these modifications, the results should not be directly compared to full SABER-ECD country analyses. | 54 132. The system fares well on the Establishing an shortcomings in the areas of equity and overall access. More Enabling Environment policy goal, with a rating of specifically, there are large regional disparities in access Established. The Established benchmark is achieved as a to ECE46 and while the preprimary enrollment rate has result of the existence of key legal provisions, coordination increased substantially in recent years, it still remains below mechanisms, and a multisectoral strategy for ECE. Figure 38 50 percent. However, it should be noted that Bangladesh depicts how the system fares in various components of this has achieved gender parity in preprimary enrollment. policy goal. In terms of Legal Framework, the country law Furthermore, to promote equity, the GoB provides the mandates one year of PPE, and the law protects the rights preprimary curriculum in multiple languages, encourages of children with special needs to access ECE. Multisectoral mother tongue instruction, and promotes inclusive coordination is (in theory) enabled by the existence of a education as called for by the Education Policy. multisectoral ECD policy, and an institutional anchor to coordinate ECD. Finance is considered Established given Figure 39: Levels of development of Bangladesh’s ECE the parity in remuneration for primary and preprimary policies for Implementing Widely teachers, availability of finance data,42 established budget Range of ECE criteria,43 and free tuition for public preprimary programs.44 programs Areas of weakness in finance include the lack of a budget 4 coordination process between ministries and a relatively 3 Inclusive low percentage of the annual education expenditure education 2 allocated to the preprimary level.45 provisions PPE GER 1 0 Figure 38: Levels of development of Bangladesh’s ECE policies for an enabling environment Law mandates provision of PPE Laws protect rights of Equity in ECE Remuneration 4 children with disabilities Equity in ECE by regions for staff by gender 3 & promote ECE access 2 Source: Author’s estimates based on SABER data collected for this study. Fees Gov’t has multi- Note: 1 = Latent, 2 = Emerging, 3 = Established, and 4 = Advanced. sectoral ECE 1 strategy 0 134. The Monitoring and Assuring Quality policy goal Level of ECE Institutional is rated Latent. Figure 40 shows how Bangladesh’s ECE finance anchor to fares in various aspects of this policy goal. The Latent coordinate ECE rating for this policy goal is mainly a result of the lack of Transparent budget Interventions coordinated data on child development outcomes and the absence of process at point of service delivery information on whether or not ECE centers comply with Collaboration between state & non- different service delivery standards. There are a number of state stakeholders standards in place for PPE (such as infrastructure standards, Source: Author’s estimates based on SABER data collected for this study. Note: 1 = Latent, 2 = Emerging, 3 = Established, and 4 = Advanced. standards for child: teacher ratio, and the requirement of using play-based approaches in the classroom), as well as 133. The Implementing Widely policy goal receives a minimum qualifications for preprimary teachers. However, rating of Emerging. As shown in Figure 39, the Emerging it is difficult to gauge the level of compliance with existing rating for this policy goal is mainly a consequence of standards due to the absence of systematic, regular 42 The GoB reports annual expenditure on public preprimary programs. This is not the case in some countries. 43 Funding allocation for preprimary programs is based on consideration of number of children enrolled, number of staff positions, historical precedent, physical infrastructure, teacher training, TLMs, equipment, printing, and program monitoring. 44 Although tuition is free, families may incur costs for uniforms, meals, and transportation. 45 In 2016–2017, 4.1 percent of the education budget was allocated for preprimary. 46 For example, according to HIES 2016–17, the division with the highest preschool enrollment rate (Rangpur) has a NER of 45.17 percent, while Mymensingh—the worst performing division—has an NER of only 25.61 percent. | 55 monitoring of ECE delivery and, consequently, the lack of and MoWCA focusing on health, nutrition, and parenting. relevant data. The only area of strength related to this policy The goal of offering integrated services to improve child goal is the availability of administrative data on preprimary outcomes for PPE children has not been achieved. There is enrollment. The GoB collects background characteristics on a need to provide further clarity on which ministry should enrolled children such as gender, mother tongue, ethnicity, coordinate and lead efforts focused on the delivery of and geographic division. It does not, however, collect data integrated ECE services and allocate the necessary funds to on children’s socioeconomic status. the lead ministry to coordinate cross-ministry collaboration in this area. As a step in this direction, it will be useful to Figure 40: Levels of development of Bangladesh’s ECE conduct a comprehensive mapping of ECD activities across policies for Monitoring and Assuring Quality the relevant ministries and share the findings with all stakeholders to identify future joint initiatives. Date on access to ECE by group 4 136. There is a need to review the human resource Non-state facilities’ Data to measure compliance w/ 3 child development management process to ensure qualified teachers standatds are attracted, developed, and retained for ECE. The 2 revised recruitment teacher policy aims to attract teachers State facilities’ 1 Data tracking with higher education qualifications. There is a need to individual child compliance w/ standards 0 outcomes review the preprimary teacher professional development opportunities with a focus on incorporating specialized Learning aspects of ECE and child development. The lack of required Teacher’s compliance standards ECD-focused specialized training, pre-service, and in-service for PPE teachers is likely to have a detrimental impact on Infrastructure & service Professional standards program quality. Moreover, there is a lack of qualified and delivery standards & development experienced preprimary educators who could serve as Source: Author’s estimates based on SABER data collected for this study. teacher trainers and teacher mentors. Hence, creating a Note: 1 = Latent, 2 = Emerging, 3 = Established, and 4 = Advanced. pool of master trainers and instructors with deep expertise in PPE should be a priority for the government. 137. MoPME needs to ensure that a robust M&E mechanism is in place to ensure quality of preprimary programs at both public and private centers. Over the 4.4 POLICY OPTIONS past decade, the GoB has developed a number of quality 135. The government needs to address the standards for the preprimary level. It should now take contradictions and lack of clarity on the respective roles the next step forward to ensure that those standards are and responsibilities of MoPME and MoWCA in regard to consistently applied. Without a strong monitoring and PPE. The Operational Framework for Preprimary Education quality assurance system, the quality of programs runs a establishes MoPME as the lead ministry for PPE, while the higher risk of being poor, with negative consequences for CPECCD states that MoWCA is the lead ministry for all early children’s development and safety. In addition, data on child childhood activities including education. In practice, the development can be used as a key part of an M&E system to two ministries operate in parallel, with MoPME leading PPE track system performance and inform future reforms. | 56 | 57 | 58 5 Chapter FINANCING EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION IN BANGLADESH 138. The GoB’s National Children Policy 2011 and the CPECCD 2013 express the need for adequate public financing of ECE and specify the ministries responsible for funding ECE programs. The Children Policy presents child development as a priority in the national development agenda and mentions that initiatives will be taken to allocate enough funds in the national budget for ECD. The CPECCD has designated MoWCA as the ministry responsible for coordinating the arrangement of necessary funds to implement the policy and MoPME as the provider of PPE. Accordingly, the implementation of ECE programs in public schools is expected to be funded by MoPME. Each year, the DPE in MoPME—the agency responsible for the planning, coordination, and implementation of PPE activities—is required to allocate the necessary budget in its annual operation plan to provide free PPE to children in public primary schools. 139. Non-state actors providing ECE services are expected to finance their activities through their own resources, though the GoB has provisions for some limited support to NGOs working in this subsector. According to the government-NGO collaboration guideline of MoPME (2013), NGOs involved in providing ECE are entitled to receive TLMs produced by the NCTB and also have access to government training facilities. However, funds required for teacher salary, supplementary learning materials, building rental, and monitoring and management activities are expected to be mobilized from their own budgets and other sources. The government-NGO collaboration guideline also mentions that the government plans to establish partnerships with appropriate institutions, including nongovernment intuitions, for the development of PPE professionals and that the funding modalities for such partnerships would be determined on a case-by-case basis. | 59 5.1 PUBLIC FINANCING OF ECE IN BANGLADESH 5.1.1 TRENDS IN PUBLIC FINANCING OF ECE was only 1.43 percent in 2012–13, it had increased to 4.10 percent in 2016–17. Supported by a steady growth 140. In Bangladesh, public resources for ECE are primarily in national GDP and accompanying increase in the total channeled through the education sector. As discussed government budget, the increase in the budget share of earlier, while MoWCA has some key responsibilities in the ECE has translated into a 646 percent growth in the ECE ECE subsector, MoPME is the main agency responsible for budget between 2012–13 and 2016–17 in absolute terms, delivering ECE services across the country through its PPE from approximately US$17.35 million to US$112.15 million program. Hence, compared to the annual PPE budget for (Table 13). MoPME, the budget allocated for ECE-related activities through MoWCA is small. For example, in 2017–18, the total budget allocated by MoWCA for ECE activities was Figure 41: ECE budget as a share of total GoB budget only around BDT 258 million (US$3.18 million). In contrast, and MoPME budget (2012/13–2016/17) the budget allocated by MoPME for PPE in 2016–17 was BDT 9,093 million (US$112.15 million) or approximately 35 % of MoPME budget in total budget times larger. The discussion in the following paragraphs % of ECE budget in MoPME’s budget will, therefore, focus only on the MoPME budget and % of ECE budget in total budget expenditure for PPE.47 7.40% 141. There has been a steady increase in the ECE 6.36% 6.65% 6.56% 5.54% budget in recent years, both in absolute terms as well as in terms of its share of the government’s budget. As 3.76% 4.10% shown in Figure 41, the ECE budget as a share of total 2.65% government budget increased from 0.09 percent to 0.3 1.43% 1.49% percent between 2012–13 and 2016–17. At the same time, 0.09% 0.1% 0.17% 0.21% 0.30% the share of ECE budget within MoPME also increased, reflecting the increased importance given to this subsector 2012-13 2013-14 2014-15 2015-16 2016-17 by the GoB in general, and by MoPME in particular. For Source: Interim Financial Report of Primary Education Development example, while the share of ECE in the MoPME budget Program (PEDP3) 2012–2016, MoPME, Ministry of Finance. Table 13: Share of ECE budget in total budget, MoPME budget, and GDP (2012/13–2016/17) Total Total MoPME ECE ECE Total GoB Education Total ECE ECE education MoPME budget as budget as budget as budget budget as budget budget as Year budget budget a share a share a share of (US$, a share of (US$, a share of (US$, (US$, of total of total MoPME millions) GDP (%) millions) GDP (%) millions) millions) budget (%) budget (%) budget (%) 2012–13 19,312.00 2,676.00 2.06 1,228.125 6.36 17.35 0.001 1.43 0.01 2013–14 22,417.62 3,136.62 2.11 1,491.25 6.65 21.94 0.001 1.49 0.01 2014–15 26,068.25 3,651.62 2.18 1,709.12 6.56 44.79 0.002 2.65 0.03 2015–16 32,696.38 3,950.62 1.84 1,812.75 5.54 67.27 0.002 3.76 0.03 2016–17 37,458.25 6,126.25 2.50 2,770.25 7.40 112.15 0.003 4.10 0.05 Source: Interim Financial Report of Primary Education Development Program (PEDP3) 2012–2016, MoPME, Ministry of Finance. 47 The terms ‘ECE budget’ and ‘ECE expenditure’ will refer to MoPME’s PPE budget and expenditure. | 60 Figure 42: ECE budget growth in nominal and real terms (US$, millions), 2012/13–2016/17 (a) ECE budget growth in nominal terms (b) ECE budget growth in 2013 constant US$ 120% 120 112.15 104% 100% 100 100% 93.93 100 93% ECE budget (in million US$) 90% 90 ECE budget (in million US$) ECE budget growth 80% 80 80% 80 ECE budget growth 67.28 67% 70% 70 60.13 56% 60% 60 60% 60 50% 50% 50 42% 40% 44.79 40 40% 40 26% 30% 16% 30 21.94 20% 20 20% 21.94 20 17.36 10% 18.90 10 0% 0 0% 0 2012-13 2013-14 2014-15 2015-16 2016-17 2012-13 2013-14 2014-15 2015-16 2016-17 Budget growth % Total ECE budget Budget growth % Total ECE budget Source: Interim Financial Report of Primary Education Development Program (PEDP3) 2012–2016. 142. One of the main reasons for the significant increase significant growth in budget in FY2015–16 and FY2016–17 as in PPE budget between 2012–13 and 2016–17 was the well. In addition, the number of PPE teachers increased by recruitment and training of a large number of teachers 23 percent from 22,277 in 2016 to 27,397 in 2017, resulting during this period. The government’s PPE expansion plan in a further increase in PPE budget allocation.48 As shown in of 2012 had identified teacher recruitment and PPE teacher Figure 42b, the growth in ECE budget is equally impressive training as key areas of focus for universalizing access to in real terms as well. PPE. Accordingly, the DPE received a significant increase 143. The increase in the ECE budget has been in its budget for PPE teacher training and recruitment in accompanied by a steady increase in per child 2014, resulting in a 104 percent increase in the PPE budget expenditure. Between 2013 and 2016, the number of PPE in nominal terms for 2014–15 (see Figure 42a). As training students increased by around 5.6 percent from around activities accelerated in the following years, there was a 2.96 million to 3.13 million (see Table 14). At the same time, Table 14: Per child public expenditure on ECE, 2013/14–2016/17 Total ECE expenditure (US$) Per child expenditure (US$) Year Number of PPE students Real a Nominal Reala 2013–14 2,962,063 10,860,136 10,860,136 3.67 3.67 2014–15 3,088,460 33,904,346 32,085,423 10.98 10.39 2015–16 2,864,877 35,380,889 31,625,392 12.35 11.04 2016–17 3,129,535 60,604,988 50,760,949 19.37 16.22 Source: Interim Financial Report of Primary Education Development Program (PEDP3) 2012–2016, MoPME. Note: a. 2013 constant US$. 48 The budget figures for 2017 are not available. But it is relevant to note that compared to the 23 percent increase in teacher numbers, the increase in the number of students was only 17 percent, resulting in an improved STR. | 61 public expenditure on ECE increased by over 645 percent, second from the bottom in the region in terms of the as the government recruited more teachers, increased share of the national budget devoted to education (11.7 the provision of supplementary reading materials, and percent). These figures are significantly lower than the constructed extra classrooms to enhance access to shares recommended by the Incheon Declaration 2015,49 PPE in public primary schools. As a result, the per child which urges national governments to allocate 4–6 percent expenditure on ECE increased dramatically from US$3.67 of their GDP and/or at least 15–20 percent of their total to US$19.37 in nominal terms, reflecting the government’s public expenditure to education. commitment to improve both the quantity and quality of 145. Given that public provision of ECE/PPE in PPE. Bangladesh is primarily the responsibility of the 144. However, public spending on ECE in Bangladesh education sector, ECE too receives a relatively small is low by international standards as is the spending in amount of public financing. For example, in 2014, public the overall education sector. In 2015, public expenditure spending on ECE in Bangladesh was only 0.02 percent of on education as a share of the GDP was only 2.2 percent, GDP, much lower than the figures for most lower-middle- making Bangladesh the lowest ranked country in South income countries which typically spend over 0.12 percent Asia along with Sri Lanka. Similarly, the country ranked of the GDP on ECE (see Figure 43 and Annex 7). Bangladesh’s Figure 43: Public spending on ECE in middle-income countries in 2014 (% of GDP) 1.4 Ecuador 1.2 Mongolia Bulgaria Expenditure on ECE as % of GDP 1 Ukraine 0.8 Kyrgyzstan Peru 0.6 Guatemala Ghana Sao Tom Maldives Costa Rica 0.4 Bolivia Armenia Romania El Salvador South Africa Colombia Kazakhstan LAO PDR Dominic Republic 0.2 Cote D Ivoire Jamaica Thailand Malaysia Cabo Cerde Belize South Africa Gabon Cambodia Kenya Timor Leste Indoensia Iran Dominica 0 Bangladesh Vanuatu Serbia Srilanka 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5 Log GDP per capita (current USS) Source: UNESCO UIS Database, World Bank Databank, Bangladesh data from Interim Financial Report of PEDP3 2014. 49 The Incheon Declaration was adopted in May 2015 by many multilateral organizations, including the World Bank, and participants from 160 countries during the World Education Forum. | 62 Figure 44: Public spending on ECE in South Asian countries, 2014 (a) Public spending on ECE as a (b) Public spending on ECE as a share of percentage of GDP (%) total government expenditure (%) Pakistan 0.41% Pakistan 2.09% Maldives 0.44% Maldives 1.49% Srilanka 0.0001% Nepal 0.38% Nepal 0.08% India 0.22% India 0.06% Bangladesh 0.02% Bangladesh 0.073% ECE spending as % of GDP ECE spending as % of gov.expenditure Source: UNESCO UIS Database, World Bank Databank, Bangladesh data from Interim Financial Report of PEDP3 2014, Sri Lanka data from laying the foundation for ECE in Sri Lanka report 2014. public spending on ECE as a share of GDP was also lower associated with teacher salaries. The remaining budget than that of most other South Asian countries (see Figure (21 percent) was spent on operational costs for schools 44). Furthermore, the country also lags behind in terms offering PPE (6.3 percent), teacher training (6.0 percent), of per child expenditure on ECE—for example, while the and other activities50 (9.7 percent). While a breakdown of average per child ECE expenditures of low-income and expenditures by more specific items is not available, the lower-middle-income countries were US$123 and US$242, PEDP3 revised program document mentions textbooks, respectively, in 2012 (Wils 2015), Bangladesh spent only teacher’s guidelines, and supplementary reading materials US$3.67 per child in 2013–14 (see Table 14). The low public as key inputs on which the allocated budget was spent. spending in this subsector imposes severe constraints on improving both the quality and quantity of ECE services. Figure 45: PPE Expenditure under PEDP3, 2011–2015 Clearly, the country’s current level of expenditure on ECE is inconsistent with its aspirations to join the ranks of upper- 79% middle-income countries by 2021. PPE teachers salary 6% 5.1.2 COMPOSITION OF ECE BUDGET AND BUDGET PPE teachers UTILIZATION RATE training 146. The government’s budget for PPE is primarily spent 6.3% Operation cost of on teacher salaries. Figure 45 shows the distribution PPE schools of ECE expenditure across four broad areas between 2011 and 2015 under PEDP3—the program under which 9.7% PPE was first implemented by MoPME. Of the total PPE Others expenditure incurred during this period, 79.0 percent was Source: PEDP3 Revised Program Document, 2016. 50 Other activities include curriculum development, orientation on PPE for officers, PPE textbook printing and distribution, and different studies. | 63 Figure 46: ECE budget utilization, 2012/13–2016/17 year (except in 2015–16), reflecting higher utilization of the allocated budget over time. More specifically, while only 120 80% 15 percent of the allocated budget was utilized in 2012– 76% 112.15 13, the budget utilization rate increased substantially ECE budget & expenditure (million US$) 70% 100 in the following years, reaching a high of 76 percent in 60% 2014–15. During this period, ECE spending as a percentage Budget utilization rate (%) 80 53% 54% 50% of GDP increased twelvefold from 0.002 percent to 0.025 49% percent. Nevertheless, as noted earlier, Bangladesh’s ECE 67.28 60 60.60 40% expenditure as a share of GDP is relatively small compared 30% to the shares in lower-middle-income countries. 40 44.79 33.90 35.38 20% 148. The low budget utilization rate in the initial years 20 10% of PEDP3 was the result of slow implementation of 21.94 17.36 15% the PPE expansion plan and teacher recruitment 0 10.86 0% 2.58 plan under the program. Because of delays in initiating and completing the recruitment of the teachers at the 2012-13 2013-14 2014-15 2015-16 2016-17 beginning of the program period, the budget allocated for teacher salaries remained largely unspent, resulting in Budget Expenditure a low budget utilization rate in 2012–13. In the following % of ECE budget utilization two years, the PPE budget utilization rate increased substantially to over 75 percent as rapid progress was Source: Interim Financial Report of Third Primary Education Development Program (PEDP3) 2012–2016, MoPME. made in teacher recruitment and subsequently in the training of these teachers on the PPE curriculum. Note 147. The budget utilization rate for PPE has increased that, in absolute terms, there was a dramatic growth in over the years, but there is still plenty of room for the ECE budget in 2015–16 and 2016–17. And though improvement. As shown in Table 15 and Figure 46, the the expenditure also increased substantially during this substantial increase in the ECE annual budget growth period, it did not keep pace with the growth in the budget, between 2012–13 and 2016–17 was accompanied by an resulting in lower budget utilization rates (less than 55 even larger percentage growth in ECE expenditure each percent) in these two years. Table 15: ECE budget and expenditure (US$, millions), 2012–13 ECE ECE ECE ECE Financial ECE budget ECE budget expenditure expenditure as expenditure expenditure year (US$, millions) growth (%) as a share of a share of GDP (US$, millions) growth (%) budget (%) (%) 2012–13 17.35 2.58 14.91 0.002 2013–14 21.94 26.42 10.86 319.64 49.49 0.017 2014–15 44.79 104.13 33.90 212.19 75.69 0.021 2015–16 67.27 50.19 35.38 4.36 52.59 0.017 2016–17 112.15 66.70 60.60 71.29 54.04 0.025 Source: ECE budget Interim Financial Report of Primary Education Development Program (PEDP3) 2012–2016, MoPME, GDP data from Ministry of Finance. | 64 5.2 PRIVATE (HOUSEHOLD) SPENDING ON ECE 149. A large share of ECE services in Bangladesh is data, around 3.8 percent of the households incurred ECE privately financed. As noted in Chapter 3, non-state expenditures and these households devoted 3.3 percent of institutions comprise around 41 percent of the institutions their total consumption to ECE. It is interesting to note that providing ECE and around 63 percent of the children households incur some costs even when their children are enrolled in ECE programs attend these institutions. While attending public ECE institutions—as shown in Figure 46, some of these institutions are subsidized by funds from the average annual ECE expenditure per child for children donors and different non-profit entities such as religious attending public institutions in 2016 was BDT 2,134, organizations and NGOs, others rely on student fees to pay significantly lower than the corresponding figure of BDT for their services. 7,105 for private institutions, but nevertheless substantial. 150. Families spend a substantial share of their 151. The share of household resources spent on ECE has household resources on ECE. According to the HIES 2016 increased over time. The percentage of households with ECE expenditures decreased from 4.1 percent in 2010 to Figure 47: Average per child expenditure on ECE 3.8 percent in 2016. This decrease may be a result of the 2010 and 2016 expansion of free PPE in GPSs as well as the expansion 9909 2010 of lower cost private providers of ECE, which is reflected 2016 in the decrease in per child ECE expenditure in private institutions as shown in Figure 47.51 However, the share ECE expenditure (BDT) 7105 of ECE expenditures in total household consumption of households with positive ECE expenditures increased from 2.4 percent in 2010 to 3.3 percent in 2016 (Figure 48a). This 3907 increase in share is a result of the rising average household 3062 ECE expenditures during this period, which increased by 2475 2134 around 25 percent from BDT 3,203 in 2010 to BDT 4,014 in 2016 (Figure 48b). There was also a substantial growth (25 percent) in the household ECE expenditure per child (Figure Total Public Private 48c). These trends reflect the increasing importance given Source: Authors’ estimates using HIES 2010 and 2016. to ECE investments by households. Figure 48: Household ECE expenditure and per child ECE household expenditure, 2010 and 2016 (a) Share of ECE in total (b) Average household (c) Average per child ECE household consumption ECE expenditure household expenditure 4014 3929 3.3% % of ECE expenditure in 3203 total HH consumption expenditure (in BDT) 3138 expenditure( In BDT) Per child HH ECE 2.4% Average ECE 2010 2016 2010 2016 2010 2016 Source: Authors’ estimates using HIES 2010 and 2016. 51 Note that, as shown in Figure 47, the per child expenditure on ECE for children attending private institutions is more than three times higher than per child expenditure on ECE for children attending private institutions. Hence, although the per child expenditure in private institutions decreased, the ECE expenditure per child in the country as a whole increased as a result of a large increase in private providers of ECE between 2010 and 2016. | 65 5.2.1 DISPARITIES IN PRIVATE SPENDING Figure 50a, household ECE spending in urban areas was 2.5 larger than the spending in rural areas in 2016. The per 152. Poorer households have substantially lower child spending difference between urban and rural areas private spending on ECE than richer households. In was almost as stark (Figure 50b). There are also notable 2016, the average annual ECE spending for households differences in ECE household spending across divisions, in the richest consumption quintile was BDT 9,887, more with households from Chittagong and Dhaka—the two than seven times higher than the average ECE spending most urbanized divisions—spending more than 3.5 times of BDT 1,379 for households in the poorest quintile (Figure the amount spent by households in Mymensingh, the 49a). A similar pattern of difference between the richer division with the lowest household spending as well as per and poorer households can be seen when we look at per child spending on ECE. child household expenditures on ECE—households in the richest quintile spent 7.6 times more per child on ECE than 154. Household private spending on ECE is mainly households in the poorest quintile (Figure 49b). used to cover books and stationery and school fees. In 2016, households spent on average about 27.51 percent 153. There are significant disparities in household on books and stationery; 23.17 percent on school fees ECE spending across geographic areas. Rural areas lag (tuition, admissions, and examination fees); 17.02 percent behind urban areas significantly in terms of total as well on school uniform; 16.5 percent on meals/snacks; 11.79 as per child household spending on ECE. As shown in Figure 49: ECE annual household expenditure and per child household expenditure by quintile, 2016 (a) ECE annual household expenditure (b) ECE annual household expenditure per child 9887 9774 ECE expenditure (in BDT) 6926 6843 ECE expenditure 3685 3587 2540 2484 1379 1293 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 (Poorest) (Richest) (Poorest) (Richest) Source: Authors’ estimates using HIES 2016. Figure 50: ECE annual household expenditure and per child household expenditure across geographical areas, 2016 (a) ECE annual household expenditure (b) ECE annual household expenditure per child 7273 7156 Per child ECE expenditure 6036 5998 ECE expenditure (in BDT) 5761 5644 4440 4307 3310 3273 2842 2968 2875 2892 2817 2816 2125 2193 1525 1471 Rural Urban Barisal Chittagong Dhaka Khulna Mymensingh Rajshahi Rangpur Sylhet Rural Urban Barisal Chittagong Dhaka Khulna Mymensingh Rajshahi Rangpur Sylhet Area Division Area Division Source: Authors’ estimates using HIES 2016. | 66 Figure 51: ECE annual household expenditure and per child household expenditure across geographical areas, 2016 4.00 3.91 2.41 3.86 5.60 5.13 6.35 12.88 11.79 12.19 15.5 16.68 16.11 16.50 15.43 19.02 15.09 16.96 16.94 17.02 16.43 17.74 18.22 15.50 21.39 21.50 23.17 21.96 25.88 28.47 35.27 31.33 27.51 25.21 19.68 17.22 Overall 1 (Poorest) 2 3 4 5 (Richest) Books & stationary School fees School uniform Meals/snacks Private tutoring Others Source: Authors’ estimates using HIES 2016. percent on private tutoring; and the remaining 4.00 Figure 52: Share of public expenditure in ECE percent on miscellaneous items (including Internet and expenditure by quintile, 2016 accommodation) (Figure 51).52 Comparing across quintiles, 49.70% it is observed that richer households allocate larger shares Percentage of public expense in of their ECE expenditures to school fees and tutoring than poorer households. On the other hand, for the poorest 35.30% quintile, books and stationery is the most important total expense expenditure category, with expenditures in this category 28.20% comprising over 35 percent of the budget spent on ECE. One reason why fees do not feature prominently for poor 17.10% households is that children from these households tend 12.80% to attend public institutions. ECE school fees in non- state institutions vary significantly across institutions and can sometimes be high. In urban areas, for example, households paid as much as BDT 49,100 per year in 2016, 1 2 3 4 5 though the average was relatively low (BDT 3,064) and 75 (Poorest) (Richest) percent of the of the children who paid school fees paid Source: Authors’ estimates using HIES 2016. BDT 4,200 or less per year. 155. As public spending has a larger importance for households. As shown in Figure 52, in 2016, about 49.7 poorer children, increase in public spending can help percent of the ECE expenditures of the average household reduce the ECE spending gap between poor and rich in the poorest quintile came from public resources 52 Books and stationery include textbooks, exercise books, notebooks, and other stationery. | 67 compared to 12.8 percent for a household from the richest Table 16: ECE expenditure per child, including and quintile, indicating that benefits from public spending are excluding public spending, 2016 more important for poorer households. The contribution of Consumption Private Private + public public spending in reducing the spending gap between the quintile spending spending rich and poor households is quite substantial. For example, 1 (poorest) 1,566 3,116 while the private per child ECE household expenditure of 2 2,842 4,392 the richest quintile is about 6.8 times higher than the per 3 3,939 5,489 child household expenditure of the poorest quintile, this ratio reduces to 3.9 times when public spending is also 4 7,536 9,086 taken into account (Table 16). 5 (richest) 10,598 12,148 Source: Authors’ estimates using HIES 2016. 5.3 POLICY OPTIONS 156. The number of children enrolled in ECE programs 158. Given the vast amount of investment needed for is expected to increase substantially in the coming universalizing ECE, it will be relevant for Bangladesh to years, which will require increased financial resources explore different options for mobilizing funds to support and service delivery capacity. There is currently a need ECE expansion. Currently, funding for ECE in Bangladesh to increase investments in ECE quality enhancement comes primarily from two sources: central government activities such as professional development of teachers, development budget, non-development budget (to fund capacity strengthening of teacher training institutions, PPE in public schools), and student fees paid by individual strengthening of the quality assurance mechanism, and families to non-state institutions. When it comes to public provision of adequate number of classrooms for PPE.53 financing, some cost sharing between the central and Apart from these expenditures, the government’s plans to local governments could be an approach to mobilizing add one more year of PPE in public primary schools will extra resources for ECE. In Finland, for example, around demand a substantial increase in public outlays related to 55 percent of the financing for ECE services is provided additional classroom construction, teacher recruitment, by municipal governments, 30 percent is provided by and provision of essential TLMs. Furthermore, as two the state, and the remaining is collected from families. years of PPE becomes the norm, families will also need to Similarly, in Brazil, most of the public ECE financing comes increase their private investments in ECE. from municipal governments. Box 5 shows examples of some innovative approaches used in different countries 157. As in most other countries, it is likely that ECE to raise funds from the private sector to support ECE. services in Bangladesh will continue to be financed by These include sin taxes, social impact bonds, payroll a combination of public and private funds. Although the taxes, and resources allocated by private firms to fulfil government is committed to expanding the provision of their CSRs. Such approaches can be explored in the case ECE, it will not be possible for public schools alone to cover of Bangladesh as well. the entire ECE age population. Even at the primary level, around 14.78 percent of the students currently attend 159. It is also relevant for Bangladesh to explore non-state managed schools (DPE, 2018b). Hence, effective different public-private partnership models of service mobilization of non-state ECE providers is necessary to delivery to expand the reach of ECE programs. While one complement the efforts of the government to eventually of year of PPE is an integral part of public primary schools, ensure universal access to ECE. 53 For example, the government needs to construct around 47,496 classrooms to ensure that there is a separate PPE classroom in each government primary school. This is expected to cost around US$1.03 billion (DPE 2018a). | 68 the reach of public PPE programs is currently limited to ECE as well and enhance equity in access. Box 6 by the geographical distribution of primary schools, presents some international examples of models where especially in rural area. The catchment areas of primary public financing is used to support private delivery of ECE schools are defined keeping primary age children in mind; services. These examples include block grants, per child hence the commute distances are sometime problematic payments, subsidies to low-income families paid directly for younger children. An effective combination of public to ECE providers, and school vouchers. and private financing can, therefore, help expand access BOX 6: Innovative financing sources Sin tax: A sin tax is a tax on goods and services considered harmful to society (for example, tobacco, liquor, and gambling). The state of California has been using cigarettes and tobacco taxes to fund better-quality child care and ECE programs. Similarly, in the Philippines, the Philippines Amusement and Gaming Corporation—a government corporation that regulates privately owned casinos—provides funding for the construction and implementation of ECD centers. Social impact bonds: A social impact bond is a results-based mechanism for funding social programs, while minimizing the risk to the government. It involves a private investor making upfront payments to a service provider to achieve some prespecified outcomes and the government repaying the investor (with interest) if the outcomes are achieved. This innovative mechanism has been used in South Africa to establish the Impact Bond Innovation Fund, which aims to improve the development outcomes of children in two low-income communities in the Western Cape. Investors will be repaid by the government if the prespecified outcomes are achieved. Payroll tax: A payroll tax is the tax an employer subtracts, on behalf of government, from the employees’ wages or salaries. Columbia had introduced a payroll tax of 3 percent in 1974 to scale up ECD interventions focused on health aspects. A semiautonomous agency, the Columbian Institute for Family Welfare (ICBF) affiliated with Ministry of Health, received around US$540 million in 2004 in the form of payroll tax income. The ICBF program related to early childhood care reached 1.2 million children across the country in 2004. CSR: Private companies can be encouraged to contribute to ECE in various ways as part of their CSRs. The ‘Soar with Reading’ program launched by Jet Blue and PBS KIDS in the United States in 2011 is a good example of CSR support to ECE. It has provided early childhood literacy tools in-flight and online as well as books to children in low-income neighborhoods.54 In Turkey, the private sector has supported advocacy work on ECE to encourage policy makers to place ECD on the priority policy agenda. For example, an influential report on the need for ECE entitled ‘Right Start: Pre-Primary Education in Turkey’ was prepared by the Turkish Industry and Business Association in 2005. Similarly, corporate local funders provide over 50 percent of the funding for the Mother Child Education Foundation (ACEV), an organization which focuses on ECE, parent training, and women’s empowerment. An awareness campaign on the importance of ECE entitled ‘7 is too late’ implemented by ACEV has reached around 40 million people through media coverage. Sources: ACEV 2016; Ilifa 2011; RDI 2016; World Bank 2016. 53 Since 2015, it has been distributing free books though vending machines. | 69 BOX 7: Examples of public financing and private delivery of ECE services SOUTH AFRICA: PPE in South Africa has been substantially scaled up in a number of provinces, including the Eastern Cape, Western Cape, and North West, through provincial government grants to community-based centers on a per learner basis. Examples of such programs include the expended public work program (EPWP) and the community work program (CWP), which are specifically targeted to areas where ECE opportunities are unavailable. Under the CWP, playgroup facilitators are paid by the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs of the government. The public grants are mostly used for maintenance and infrastructure. INDONESIA: The Ministry of National Education in Indonesia has been providing seed funds to private and nonprofit organizations for expansion of ECE activities. This funding through block grants has supported 4,000 ECE institutions, and new block grants are expected to support additional 3,000 new initiatives. The recipients of the block grants are allowed to provide both formal and nonformal education. NEW ZEALAND: The New Zealand government has been providing family child care subsidy on the basis of family income. This subsidy is paid directly to the ECE provider on behalf of individual children and the subsidy can be up to NZD 27 per week, with the balance of the fee being paid by the family. Additionally, tax exemption on child care fees and housekeeper allowance has also encouraged family investments in ECE activities. These approaches have contributed to ensuring the enrollment and retention of children in early years of schooling. CHILE: Chile has been implementing a service delivery initiative where the National Board of Day Care Centers works as the primary provider of public child care. Approximately, 172,900 students under this program attend private or independent centers subsidized by the government through the National Board. The Centros de Atención Integral Familiar (CAIF) centers of Uruguay also follow this modality to reach vulnerable families. Service delivery initiatives are normally designed to engage government entities to finance the student placement in existing private program. This kind of approach brings sustainable impact especially when a public program fails to accommodate demand. Under this arrangement, a contract is initiated with details of per- student or per child payment the private program will be receiving from government agencies. This payment from the government is subject to achieving specific targets and maintaining certain standards. HONG KONG: Vouchers are another mechanism for publicly financing private provision of ECE services. The ongoing preprimary education voucher scheme (PEVS) in Hong Kong (introduced in 2006) is a good example of this financing approach. As PPE is not part of compulsory and universal education in Hong Kong, PPE services are provided by private or non-profit institutions. Under the PEVS, families receive subsidies in the form of vouchers which they can use to pay for ECE services provided by approved non-profit kindergartens/ kindergarten-cum-child care centers/schools with kindergarten classes. Sources: Ilifa 2011; RDI 2016; World Bank 2016; UNESCO 2006. | 70 REFERENCES Aboud, F. E., and Yousafzai, A.K. 2015. “Global Health and Development in Early Childhood.” Ann Rev Psychol 66: 433–57. Anne, C. and Egitim, V. 2017. Mother Child Education Foundation. 2016. Turkiye’de 0–6 yas cocugun durumu arastirmasi. [Children’s status report for the ages 0–6 in Turkey]. Istanbul: ACEV. 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Washington DC: World Bank. | 73 ANNEX Annex 1: Marginal Effects of Probit Estimates for Enrollment in ECE and Age- Appropriate Enrollments in ECE for 2010 (1) (2) (3) Variables Enrolled in PPE (versus not PPE in age 5 Age 5 children enrolled in PPE enrolled in school) for age 5 versus other ages versus enrolled in other grades The child is a female −0.207* (−1.664) −0.013 (−0.096) −0.221 (−1.322) The child lives in urban area 0.061 (0.440) −0.261* (−1.721) −0.156 (−0.848) The child has disability 0.353 (0.943) 0.296 (0.742) 0.247 (0.537) Years of education of father 0.027 (1.292) −0.005 (−0.209) 0.023 (0.800) Years of education of mother 0.058*** (2.603) 0.068*** (2.636) 0.019 (0.611) Number of children ages 0–17 in −0.053 (−1.000) −0.154** (−2.563) −0.400 (−1.637) the family The child's family is in second −0.079 (−0.453) −0.047 (−0.222) −0.320 (−1.260) poorest quintile The child's family is in third 0.157 (0.814) −0.186 (−0.854) 0.084 (0.285) poorest quintile The child's family is in fourth 0.114 (0.562) −0.320 (−1.361) 0.131 (0.400) poorest quintile The child's family is in the richest 0.723*** (2.837) −0.114 (−0.430) −0.114 (−1.452) t quintile The child lives in Chittagong −0.086 (−0.348) −0.113 (−0.383) 0.220 (0.746) division The child lives in Dhaka division −0.189 (−0.778) −0.467 (−1.641) 0.404 (1.355) The child lives in Khulna division −0.091 (−0.342) −0.761** (−2.549) 0.323 (1.008) The child lives in Rajshahi division −0.153 (−0.593) −0.301 (−0.970) 0.429 (1.345) The child lives in Rangpur division −0.322 (−1.183) −0.486 (−1.527) 0.528 (1.446) The child lives in Sylhet division −0.369 (−1.127) −0.407 (−1.062) 0.044 (0.104) Constant −0.928*** (−3.342) 0.138 (0.405) 0.018 (0.048) Observations 622 438 259 Note: z-statistics in parentheses; ***p < 0.01, **p < 0.05, *p < 0.1. | 76 Annex 2: Early Learning Development Standards (ELDS) Physical and motor development Social and emotional development 1.1.1.1: The child should be able to eat 2.1.1.1: The child should be able to trust and interact with familiar adults. a variety of balanced and adequate nutritious food to achieve age-appropriate 2.1.1.2: The child should be able to ask for help when needed. weight and height. 2.1.2.1: The child should be able to interact positively and cooperatively with other children 1.1.2.1: The child should have adequate through play. strength, stamina, and energy to 2.1.3.1: The child should be able to take social cues from the environment and adjust her/his participate in a variety of physical activities. behavior accordingly. 1.2.1.1: The child should be able to use 2.1.3.2: The child should be able to cooperate with others. and coordinate large muscles for body movements and postures. 2.1.3.3: The child should be able to adapt to diverse settings. 1.2.2.1: The child should be able to use and 2.1.3.4: The child should be able to take responsibilities, negotiate, and participate in decision coordinate movements of small muscles of making. hands and fingers. 2.1.3.5: The child should be able to demonstrate empathy for others and the natural world. 1.2.3.1: The child should be able to use her/his senses (see, hear, touch, smell, and 2.2.1.1: The child should be able to recognize and express appropriate range of emotion taste) to guide motion. (anger, joy, frustration, jealousy, fear, and so on). 1.3.1.1: The child should be able to 2.2.2.1: The child should be able to demonstrate her/his ability to understand and follow rules demonstrate ability to avoid harmful and routines. objects and situations. 2.2.2.2: The child should be able to regulate her/his feelings and impulses. 1.3.1.2: The child should be able to demonstrate awareness and 2.2.3.1: The child should be able to perceive herself/himself as unique individuals and understanding of safety rules/simple demonstrate awareness of her/his own abilities. instructions. 2.3.1.1: The child should be able to demonstrate honesty, respect for self and others, take 1.3.2.1: The child should be able to responsibility, and should be able to accomplish tasks. demonstrate personal care and oral 2.3.2.1: The child should be able to love and respect family and community. hygiene skills. 2.3.3.1: The child should be able to show respect and love for Bangladeshi culture and heritage. 2.3.4.1: The child should be able to understand the concept of unity and appreciate cultural and physical diversity. | 77 Language and communication Cognitive 3.1.1.1: The child should be able to listen 4.1.1.1: The child should be able to demonstrate awareness of the natural environment and and understand the spoken language its relationship with humans beings. 3.2.1.1: The child should be able to 4.1.2.1: The child should be able to describe features and characteristics of human beings. use sounds, words, and gestures to communicate her/his thoughts and 4.1.2.2: The child should be able to collect information through observation and feelings. manipulation. 3.3.1.1: The child should be able to 4.1.2.3: The child should be able to engage in exploring the natural world by manipulating recognize written symbols, letters, and text objects, asking questions, making predictions, and developing generalizations. with understanding. 4.1.2.4: The child should be able to observe and describe characteristics of living things. 3.4.1.1: The child should be able to express 4.1.2.5: The child should be able to observe and describe characteristics of weather and idea through picture, symbol, and text. seasons. 3.5.1.1: The child should be able to 4.1.2.6: The child should be able to use technology appropriately. demonstrate competency in another language along with mother tongue. 4.1.3.1: The child should be able to differentiate between past, present, and future events. 4.1.3.2: The child should be able to demonstrate awareness of location and spatial relationships. 4.1.3.3: The child should be able to demonstrate knowledge of the relationship between people, places, and regions. 4.1.3.4: The child should be able to demonstrate awareness of concepts of economics. 4.1.3.5: The child should be able to demonstrate awareness of family characteristics and functions. 4.1.3.6: The child should be able to demonstrate awareness of her/his community, human interdependence, and social roles. 4.1.3.7: The child should be able to demonstrate civic responsibility. 4.1.4.1: The child should be able to demonstrate knowledge of counting numbers. 4.1.4.2: The child should be able to demonstrate knowledge and skills to operate with size, volume, height, weight, and length. 4.1.4.3: The child should be able to identify and label shapes. 4.1.4.4: The child should be able to sort, group, classify, and organize objects. 4.2.2.1: The child should be able to develop basic concepts pertaining to object constancy, space, time, quantity, and so on and uses these as the basis for understanding how materials are categorized in her/his environment. 4.3.1.1: The child should be able to communicate through artistic expressions and think and use things in new ways. 4.3.2.1: The child should be able to demonstrate musical intelligence by creating various sounds, appreciating music, singing, and playing musical instruments. 4.4.1.1: The child should be able to demonstrate awareness of cause and effect. 4.4.1.2: The child should be able to use past experiences to build new knowledge. 4.4.1.3: The child should be able to find multiple solutions/answers to questions, tasks, problems, and challenges. Source: MoWCA, Comprehensive Early Childhood Care and Development Policy 2009 | 78 Annex 3: Requirements for PPE classroom The Program Document of the Fourth Primary Education Development Program specifies the following criteria for all PPE classrooms: • Schools have a well-decorated classroom for preprimary. • Schools have a dedicated PPE classroom. • Schools have a dedicated teacher for preprimary class. • PPE teachers have received induction training on PPE as per standard training manual. • PPE classroom and premises are safe and secure as per guideline. • Classroom is organized and decorated as per classroom organization and decoration guideline developed by the DPE. • All TLMs including play and stationery materials as per the approved list are available in classrooms. • Mapping of preprimary age children and service providers in school catchment area is available STR is 30:1. • Teachers follow class routine, annual work plan, and teaching-learning process stipulated in the teacher’s guide. • PPE class following continuous assessment guideline with updated record and no exam throughout the year. • Maintaining daily attendance rate of 90 percent or more. • Each PPE class organizes at least six structured parents’ meeting a year following the guidelines. • Each PPE class receives a structured supervisory visit and support from head teacher twice in a month. • Each PPE class receives a structured monitoring visit and support from AUEO/UEO/URCI once in every quarter following a guideline. • Dropout rate at a minimum. According to Operational Framework for Preprimary Education, PPE centers are required to be set up either in a primary school or in a separate house having at least 250 square feet space for 20–30 children. It needs to be run by a trained teacher/ caregiver (preferably supported by an assistant) and a CMC having at least seven members including the teacher. The center’s furnishing will include, at least, a small table and a chair for the teacher (for occasional use), one chalkboard, one bulletin board or wall hanger for hanging children’s class work, and sitting mats for children. Children may sit in a ‘U’ shape formation, though sitting will be rearranged often for small group or individual work or other activities. There will be several corners for various activities and space outside class for outdoor activities. Provision for wall shelves for keeping children’s work and learning materials will be desirable. Assessment of the existing baby classes attached with the GPSs will be carried out to provide necessary support for continuation as PPE in line with the policy. | 79 Annex 4: Overview on IDELA INTRODUCTION OF IDELA proficiency in mathematics. Specifically, the module assesses The International Development and Early Learning children’s knowledge of and ability to recognize numbers and Assessment (IDELA) is an easy-to-use, rigorous global tool patterns, compares quantities, and manipulates numbers that measures children’s early learning and development. through addition and subtraction. Across all subtasks IDELA provides ECCD programs, donors, and government within the numeracy domain, children can score a possible partners with evidence on the status of children aged 3.5–6 maximum of 43 points. years. IDELA has been used in over 40 countries to successfully EXECUTIVE FUNCTION evaluate ECCD programs and provide reliable information to programs, communities, donors, and government In IDELA, executive function measures children’s short-term partners. Evidence on child outcomes supports continuous memory and their inhibitory control—cognitive processes improvement and highlights strengths and weaknesses in that are necessary for controlling one’s behavior. ECCD programs. IDELA captures age variation, equity factors, APPROACHES TO LEARNING programmatic impact, and quality across different types of interventions The IDELA module on approaches to learning attempts to gauge children’s readiness to learn by assessing children’s EMERGENT LITERACY AND LANGUAGE curiosity and eagerness to learn and their ability to tackle The emergent literacy module assesses children’s oral challenges, follow directions, and take risks. language knowledge, decoding skills, writing skills, and oral SOCIAL-EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT comprehension. The percentage correct from each subskill is combined to generate an overall emergent literacy score To measure social-emotional development, IDELA assesses (calculated as the total percent correct for all domain items skills that facilitate children’s ability to appropriately interact divided by the total number of items in this domain multiplied and build relationships with peers, authorities, and family. by 100 percent). For the emergent literacy domain, children’s This module specifically looks at children’s self-awareness, scores are calculated out of 55 total points. The marked emotional awareness, and empathy and their ability to solve increases in scores among children in both treatment and conflicts and scores out of a total of 25 points. control groups from baseline to midline are calculated. GROSS AND FINE MOTOR DEVELOPMENT EMERGENT NUMERACY The final domain assessed by IDELA is children’s healthy The numeracy module of IDELA captures children’s emergent motor development and functioning. The administration of numeracy by testing a progression of skills that contribute to this module has children hop, copy a shape, draw a person, and fold a piece of paper. Total Possible IDELA Points by Domain and Subskill Domain Subskill Total possible point Panel A. Emergent Literacy Print awareness 3 Expressive vocabulary 20 Letter identification 20 Emergent writing 4 Phonemic awareness 3 Listening comprehension 5 Total 55 | 80 Domain Subskill Total possible point Panel B. Emergent Numeracy Measurement and comparison 4 Classification and sorting 2 Number identification 20 Shape identification 5 One-to-one correspondence 3 Addition and subtraction 3 Simple problem solving (puzzle) 6 Total 43 Panel C. Executive Function Short-term memory 4 Inhibitory control 6 6 Total 10 Panel D. Approaches to Learning 12 Total 12 Panel E. Social-Emotional Peer relationships 10 Emotional awareness and regulation 4 Empathy 3 Self-awareness 6 Conflict resolution 2 Total 25 Panel F. Motor Development Hoping on one foot 10 Copying a shape 4 Drawing a human figure 8 Folding paper 4 Total 26 Source: Bangladesh Early Years Preschool Program Impact Evaluation 2019. | 81 Annex 5: Organogram for PPE in MoPME MINISTRY OF PRIMARY AND MASS EDUCATION (responsible for preprimary, primary, and literacy education) DIRECTORATE OF NATIONAL ACADEMY BUREAU OF NONFORMAL COMPULSORY PRIMARY EDUCATION OF PRIMARY EDUCATION PRIMARY EDUCATION (supervise and EDUCATION (education and IMPLEMENTATION administer primary (train government employment for those MONITORING UNIT schools) primary teachers) with no formal education) PREPRIMARY EDUCATION DIVISION (supervise and administer government preprimary programs) DISTRICT EDUCATION OFFICES (supervise and administer government preprimary and primary programs) UPAZILA EDUCATION OFFICES (supervise and administer government preprimary and primary programs) | 82 Annex 6: Organogram for ECD in MoWCA MINISTRY OF WOMEN AND CHILD AFFAIRS (supervision and coordination for ECD) NATIONAL ECCD NATIONAL ECCD NATIONAL DEPARTMENT BANGLADESH COORDINATION TECHNICAL WOMEN OF WOMEN SHISHU ACADEMY COMMITTEE COMMITTEE ORGANIZATION AFFAIRS (ensure quality (coordinate and (provide (improve (promote standards, deliver implement ECCD technical support women’s women’s ECD health and activities) to MoWCA) conditions) welfare) nutrition activities) | 83 Annex 7: Public Spending on ECE in Lower and Upper-Middle-Income Countries Government expenditure on PPE as a share of Government Government expenditure on Country GDP (%) expenditure (%) education (%) Lower-middle-income countries Bangladesh 0.02 0.07 2.05 Bolivia 0.36 0.83 4.98 Cambodia 0.05 0.23 2.63 Cabo Verde 0.07 0.26 1.59 Côte d'Ivoire 0.12 0.58 2.70 El Salvador 0.28 1.19 7.43 Ghana 0.44 1.53 7.30 Indonesia 0.05 0.31 1.75 Kenya 0.03 0.11 0.66 Kyrgyz Republic 0.58 1.54 10.66 Lao People's Democratic 0.19 0.79 6.55 Republic Mongolia 1.08 2.78 23.09 São Tomé and Principe 0.44 1.47 11.97 Timor-Leste 0.03 0.08 1.18 Ukraine 0.95 2.13 16.29 Vanuatu 0.005 0.02 0.10 Upper-middle-income countries Armenia 0.29 1.21 10.95 Azerbaijan 0.28 0.72 9.48 Belize 0.08 0.33 1.43 Bulgaria 1.02 2.89 25.33 Colombia 0.26 0.89 5.65 Costa Rica 0.41 .. 6.07 Dominica 0.06 0.20 1.93 Dominican Republic 0.25 1.43 .. Ecuador 1.18 2.71 22.47 Gabon 0.10 0.43 3.84 Guatemala 0.54 4.08 18.59 Iran (Islamic Republic of) 0.005 0.03 0.19 Jamaica 0.20 0.73 3.37 Kazakhstan 0.27 1.31 .. Malaysia 0.17 0.66 3.35 Maldives 0.41 1.22 11.84 Peru 0.61 2.68 16.58 Romania 0.33 0.99 10.75 Serbia 0.029 0.06 0.72 South Africa 0.09 0.29 1.53 Thailand 0.22 1.03 5.41 Source: UIS Database 2014; Bangladesh data from the Annual Fiduciary Statement, MoF, 2014. | 84 World Bank Office Dhaka Plot- E-32, Agargaon, Sher-e-Bangla Nagar Dhaka-1207, Bangladesh Tel: 880-2-5566-7777 Fax: 880-2-5566-7778 www.worldbank.org/bangladesh