Early childhood education has a new Massive Open Online Course (MOOC)

Worldwide, at least 175 million children are not enrolled in pre-primary education. A new massive open online course is set to address this gap and support countries in planning to provide all children the best start in education.

October 10, 2019 by Jo Bourne, GPE Secretariat, Suzanne Grant Lewis, UNESCO’s International Institute for Educational Planning (IIEP), Jordan P. Naidoo, UNESCO, Kabul Office, Afghanistan, and Robert Jenkins, UNICEF
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4 minutes read
Children in early education/ Credit/UNICEF
Credit: UNICEF

The Sustainable Development Goal 4 for education sets a clear objective through target 4.2: All girls and boys have access to quality early childhood development, care and pre-primary education so they are ready for primary school.

But we are millions of children away from making this happen.

Progress in early childhood education (ECE) is being held back by the challenges of developing and implementing effective early childhood education plans at country level and ensuring that the ECE subsector is fully mainstreamed in the broader education sector policy and planning processes.

National policymakers are faced with a multitude of questions, which are critical for building a strong ECE sub-sector:

  • How do we ensure good quality ECE access for all children?
  • How much will it cost to scale up? How fast can we scale up?
  • How can we reach the most disadvantaged children?
  • How many teachers do we need? How do we ensure they are well trained?

Working together to find the answers

The Global Partnership for Education (GPE), UNESCO, UNICEF, and the International Institute for Educational Planning (IIEP-UNESCO) have come together with a common vision to support national policy makers and partners who need to make key decisions . The result is a new (and free) online course:

Mainstreaming early childhood education into education sector planning

This massive open online course (MOOC) is the first of its kind, building capacity at the right technical level to make a difference. Other technical courses exist on ECE and on sector planning, but this is the first that covers integrated holistic planning specifically for pre-primary education.

Early childhood education brings outstanding benefits. What’s holding it back?

The benefits of quality ECE programs are many and proven. Quality early childhood education is a key to success in a child’s life, regardless of their home circumstances. It promotes cognitive, language, numeracy and motor skills, and sets the foundation for developing appropriate socio-emotional skills as well, helping 3- to 5-year-olds get ready for primary school – and boosting their chances of staying and succeeding in school.

Yet 78% of children in low-income countries do not have access to any type of pre-primary education at all.

Education sector plans are not always prepared to cover and mainstream pre-primary education. Roadblocks to smooth ECE integration and implementation include:

  • Ministries of Education haven’t always taken on the policy leadership for early childhood education programs
  • ECE directorates within the overall education ministry are often the smallest, and overall ECE planning and implementation capacity is often minimal
  • ECE cost and financing data is not always available, making it significantly difficult to advocate for increased allocation in domestic budgets and international aid, or to appropriately.
  • ECE plans often lack the level of detail and system-level objectives that are the norm for primary and secondary education.
  • Among many practical challenges, pre-primary teachers are in short supply, and those who are dedicated to early childhood education often lack relevant or recognized qualifications training or don’t receive adequate compensation for their work.

Mainstreaming ECE into education sector planning can put education ministries in a strategic position to take the lead on children’s learning during their early years. It will allow greater targeted attention to the sub-sector while ensuring a smooth continuum with primary education in policy formulation, planning and implementation.

An uplift for ECE planning

“It is time for a world ready to learn, where all children have access to quality early childhood education and enter school equipped with the skills they need to learn, succeed and prosper.” 1

To do this, evidence-based ECE strategies and programs must be an integrated in holistic comprehensive education sector planning.

The free 5-week MOOC is an introduction to the concepts, processes and tools countries across the globe need to ensure that pre-primary education is adequately and successfully mainstreamed into their education sector plan cycles. It aims to strengthen participants’ knowledge of ECE issues, better inform planning and policy decision-making and lead to improved programs.

This multi-partner course is ready for education planners, early childhood education professionals, professionals from ministries of education and their partners. In short: It is meant for anyone who is working to improve early learning in low- and middle-income countries and achieve better education outcomes.

We urge our national and global partners to join this new MOOC to help give all children the best start in education.

Register to the MOOC now through October 18, 2019

The 5-week course will start on October 28 and end on November 29. The course is conducted in English. (Plans are in the works to add other languages in future versions.)

  1. On August 28, 2019, at the Seventh Tokyo International Conference on African Development in Yokohama, Japan, the African Union, GPE, UNICEF, the African Early Childhood Network, the World Bank and Global Citizen called on world leaders and the global community to take action and bring about change for young children and nations. This call for action is currently being updated to include a wider array of global partners in early childhood education.

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Comments

I look forward to this course.

This is greatly welcomed as it will bridge a lot of gaps

Dear All, l am actually following this course. I am enjoying it very ml was hoping of getting in touch before but due to certain hiccups I could not. Do have a blessed day. uch.

When next the course will be opened for another round of entrance?

This is a very laudable program and as an educationist, I will like to partake of the training. Please furnish me with the required information for the next session. Thank you.

saludos , quisiera información para recibir el curso soy docente de educación inicial en Lima -Perú me interesa mucho tener mayor información para apoyar en la mejora de la educación de la primera infancia.

In reply to by segil huayllas…

Buenos dias -

Los cursos estan disponibles en nuestra página web:

globalpartnership.org/content/rationale-investing-pre-primary 

Gracias

Glad to meet you
Please could you help me with the process how I can do the course with you
God bless you