VII Latin America and the Caribbean Regional Workshop on Education Statistics 2009 Cancun, Quintana Roo, México 9-11 December, 2009 Regional Project of Education Indicators (PRIE) Summit of the Americas The Early Childhood Care and Education Need for Quality Information

Right to education is the right to a quality education from birth and through life allowing full development, learning and participation of people. Neuroscientists – early childhood integral attention since the very early age potentially produce better results, among them, reduction of repetition, dropout, aggression and violence. Quality integral attention during the first years favour further educational development (learning achievements) and contributes for reduction of inequality.

In 1991, the Organization of the American States, following the priorities established by the member States approved the Resolution on Protection and Defense of children and youth under risk, and started a series of initiatives with other agencies worldwide and with countries in the region. Specific annual meetings on integral attention, gave rise to better defined policies and investment in favor to the children.

V Ministers of Education Meeting (2007) approves the “Hemispheric Commitment on Early Childhood“ Design, implement and disseminate a regional strategy for the development of indicators on early childhood care and education that provides comparable quantitative and qualitative information to monitor progress of member States.

The V Summit of the Americas taken place in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, in 2009, reaffirmed the previous commitments… We recognize that the improvement of the quality and access to early childhood education is a key factor to achieve universal primary education by We recognize that investment in early childhood care and education since birth to the first years of primary education improves learning and benefits society, health and job.

Policy progress, predominates the expansion of coverage for five and six years old children. Brazil, Colombia, Venezuela, and Chile incorporated in their Constitution the right and promotion of early childhood education. All countries of the region have shown improvement on policy formulation, normative or strategies for early childhood, some combining with paid maternity-lactancy/paternity leave rights (Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Paraguay, Nicaragua, Peru, Bahamas, Barbados)

Policies for below three years old children mainly concentrates on social policies in most countries of LAC, like health. In most countries of the region, there is a lack of an equity perspective policy and normative framework with emphasis on social inclusion, as: special education needs, indigenous, rural, afro descendant and boarder, gender issues for below three years old population.

Establish a reference for production of statistics on this level will require first to specify the nature of those programs, and then, develop strategies to collect information that allows us monitor the progress of the member States. One can see great weakness on the information an statistical systems, only providing global figures, no disaggregation, often developed through estimates by government and different sectors.

PoliciesToward integral policies Focused on vulnerable groups Lack of articulation of procedures Low coverage for 0 to3 years old group. Mainly urban. Programs mainly focused on health and nutrition. Curriculum and programs Need to generate synergies among modalities Need to consider experiences from civil society Lack of programs for remote communities Efforts on children centered programs Still prevail adult centered programs. Evaluation, monitoring e researches No integrated information makes difficult monitoring Low link between policies and programs Research centered on children care Training of personnel Professionalization policies not aligned with the needs and specificities of early age children FinanceInequality on financing these programs among countries CoordinationWeakness on effective coordination among sectors and institutions Transition Transition family – school don't take into account culture specificities Andean Region Understanding the state of the art in early childhood education and care – OAS Survey (2007)

Mercosur PoliciesServices mainly on urban areas Programs not designed to consider equity and inclusion Mainly focused on social policies. Still not seen fully as the “ first ” level of education system Weakness on policies regarding gender issues (ex. Benefits for mothers) Curriculum and programs Tend to consider children as person within curricular proposals Not all countries has developed curriculum for this age group taking account ethnic and cultural specificities. Evaluation, monitoring e researches Isolated experiences in universities or in countries related to research and evaluation of programs and curriculum Training of personnel Initiatives on in-service teachers training in tertiary education institutions financed by government. FinanceLack of information on investment on programs for 0 to 3 years old children CoordinationCivil society demand participation Some experiences of coordination among civil society, state, church, universities and associations TransitionSome experiences on transition from preprimary to primary education

Central America PoliciesThere are efforts in providing programs with equity. Population group up to 3 years old higher than the one from 4 to 6 years old. There are some programs supporting working mothers. Curriculum and programs Programs consider children as persons with rights. There are curricula for educational programs for this population group. There is no systematic evaluation of these programs. There are some isolated experiences. Curriculum implementation in progress in some countries Evaluation, monitoring e researches Few researches on programs and projects. Researches focused on children care. Difficulties on implementing the programs. Training of personnel Few programs on personnel training Some programs provided differentiated training for no professionals. FinanceFew information on investment on these programs. They rely many times on international loans and NGOs. CoordinationSome countries report the existence of some coordination, others no coordination at all. TransitionNo systematic studies on 0 to 3 years old children transition to the education system.

North America PoliciesUSA programs focus on low income families (Head Start), Canada a universal policy. Population group of lower than 3 years old higher than the one from 3 to 5 years old. Mexico concentrates on urban areas. There is services regulation. Curriculum and programs Head Start, programs based on standards, not on curriculum. Canada doesn't have a national curriculum, only standardized programs. Mexico has curriculum for programs to children up to 4 years old. Evaluation, monitoring e researches Mexico has implementation, monitoring and evaluation plans. Canada and USA, have evaluation systems for those programs. Training of personnel Funds for researches from Central Government in USA, and from Provinces in Canada. FinanceFunds provided by central, local and private. CoordinationHead Start doesn't coordinates with other sectors. Canada there is some coordination. TransitionParents monitor transition in Head Start. In Canada, programs include coordination with parents.

The Caribbean PoliciesCARICOM promotes planning for ECCE programs. They include intersectorial policies, orientation for policy development, regulations and standards. Not much differences between up to 3 years old population group and teh one from 4 to 6 years old. Curriculum and programs Grenada, Saint Christopher and Nevis and Belize have curriculum for children lower than 3 years old. Implementation in progress. Evaluation, monitoring e researches In general, there is no evaluation of these programs. Some evaluation has been carried out in Jamaica. Training of personnel The Caribbean has a regional framework for personnel training, including performance indicators, both for professionals and no professionals. There is a proposal for accreditation based on parameters established at regional level. FinanceTwo countries have information, the other four were carrying out program cost studies. CoordinationCARICOM plays a major role in the integration actions of the member countries and institutions associated with child care. TransitionThere are few formal studies on transition to school. Efforts have been made on the designs guides that support transition, sharing responsibility with parents.

The education provision in the region of education before primary education has been progressively consolidated, as it shows the figures, with increasing growth on preprimary net enrolment. Nevertheless, it is still existing great differences among countries of the region, and within the country, among students from different socioeconomic background, gender, ethnicity, and area of residence. Early childhood care and education has been a major concern for OAS member States, and it has been constantly an important issue addressed in the Summits of the Americas. Lack of strategies in most countries to develop indicators on ECCE has limited the capacity to monitor the progress and assess the challenges for this population, specially, those below 3 years of age. This is one of the major challenges we face today in the region regarding production and analysis of education related information. Conclusiones