Uzbekistan commits to increasing preschool education coverage
09/04/2019 08:51
Uzbekistan commits to increasing preschool education coverage
09/04/2019 08:51
Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- About 175 million children of pre-primary age not enrolled in preschool globally, UNICEF warned in a new report released today.
In Uzbekistan, more than 1.600.000 boys and girls – around 70% per cent of pre-primary-age children – are not enrolled in pre-primary education according to official data This means every two out of three of children are missing a critical investment opportunity and are at risk of suffering deep inequalities from the start.
“Pre-primary schooling is our children’s educational foundation – every stage of education that follows relies on its success,” said UNICEF Sascha Graumann, Representative, UNICEF Uzbekistan. “Yet, too many children around the world are denied this opportunity. This increases their risk of repeating grades or dropping out of school altogether and relegates them to the shadows of their more fortunate peers.”
A World Ready to Learn: Prioritizing quality early childhood education – UNICEF’s first ever global report on pre-primary education – reveals that children enrolled in at least one year of pre-primary education are more likely to develop the critical skills they need to succeed in school, less likely to repeat grades or drop out of school, and therefore more able to contribute to peaceful and prosperous societies and economies when they reach adulthood.
Children in pre-primary education are more than twice as likely to be on track in early literacy and numeracy skills than children missing out on early learning. In countries where more children attend pre-primary programmes, significantly more children complete primary school and attain minimum competencies in both reading and math by the time they finish primary school.
Globally, the report notes that household wealth, mothers’ education level and geographical location are among the key determinants for pre-primary attendance. However, poverty is the single largest determining factor. Some key findings:
In 2017 an average of 6.6 per cent of domestic education budgets globally are dedicated to pre-primary education, with nearly 40 per cent of countries with data allocating less than 2 per cent of their education budgets to this sub-sector. In Uzbekistan, 11 per cent is allocated to pre-primary education. Across the Eastern Europe and Central Asia, governments dedicate 11.3 per cent of their education budgets to pre-primary education.
This lack of worldwide investment in pre-primary education negatively impacts quality of services, including a significant lack of trained pre-primary teachers. Together, low- and lower middle-income countries are home to more than 60 per cent of the world’s pre-primary-age children, but scarcely 32 per cent of all pre-primary teachers. In fact, only 422,000 pre-primary teachers currently teach in low income countries. With expanding populations, assuming an ideal pupil-teacher ratio of 20 to 1, the world will need 9.3 million new pre-primary teachers to meet the universal target for pre-primary education by 2030. In Uzbekistan the ratio of pre-primary teachers is in urban areas 25:1 and in rural areas it is 5:1, indicating very low enrollments.
“If today’s governments want their workforce to be competitive in tomorrow’s economy, they need to start with early education,” said Sascha Graumann. “If we are to give our children the best shot in life to succeed leaders must prioritize, and properly resource, pre-primary education.”
UNICEF is urging governments to make at least one year of quality pre-primary education universal and a routine part of every child’s education, especially the most vulnerable and excluded children. UNICEF welcomes efforts of the Government of Uzbekistan to offer one year of free and compulsory pre-primary education. This initiative has been implemented in three regions of Uzbekistan.
UNICEF urges governments to commit at least 10 per cent of their national education budgets to scale up early childhood education and invest in teachers, quality standards, and equitable expansion.
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