World Bank approves $ 50 m to support national plan for early childhood development

Friday, 26 June 2015 01:43 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

The World Bank Board approved a $ 50 million credit to improve the quality and increase equitable access to Early Childhood Development (ECD) services in Sri Lanka. Early investment in human capital development is particularly effective at increasing the ability of disadvantaged children to access learning opportunities. It will also contribute to improve learning outcomes and support Sri Lanka to become more competitive in the global economy in the long run.

The Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) is emphasising the importance of human capital formation, including the role of ECD, in realising the country’s long-term development goals. GoSL has recently established the State Ministry of Child Affairs to specifically promote the development and wellbeing of children in the 0-5 age group. It has also developed a draft National Plan for Early Childhood Care and Development (2015-2020), to guide interventions in the ECD sector, which will be supported with this credit line.

Early childhood is considered to be the period from conception to five years of age. Monitoring and managing the milestones for the 0-2 year olds are well-established in Sri Lanka, with the health sector playing a lead role in ensuring the holistic development of these children. Centre-based ECD programs for children in the 3-5 age range are less developed. Sri Lanka has around 17,020 ECD centres staffed by 29,340 teachers. Around 84% of these centres are under non-state management.

“Sri Lanka needs to invest early, invest smartly and invest in all its people regardless of their socio-economic status if it is to meet its growth targets, end absolute poverty, and achieve shared prosperity,” said World Bank Country Director for Sri Lanka and the Maldives Francoise Clottes. “Investing in Human Capital is crucial for the country to become competitive in the global economy, and this project aims at strengthening the foundation for Early Childhood Development in Sri Lanka.”

This five year project aims to enrol an additional 150,000 children in ECD centres, while enhancing an additional 2,500 such centres to meet national quality standards. By the end of the project, 5,000 ECD centres would have conducted annual child development assessments in order to validate the overarching project objective of improving quality of and enhancing equitable access to ECD.

“Inequitable access to and poor quality of ECD services are two of the key challenges this project seeks to address,” said Senior Economist and Team Leader of the project Saurav Dev Bhatta. “Evidence suggests that household income and location are key determinants of access to ECD services. Enrolment rates are lower for children from poorer households, rural areas and plantations. Most ECD centres that cater to the poorer segments of society are resource constrained and are inadequate in terms of basic infrastructure, teaching-learning materials, and teacher qualifications,” said the team leader.

The credit for this project is being provided by the International Development Association (IDA) – the World Bank’s concessionary lending arm – with a maturity of 25 years, including a five year grace period. The central government agency with primary responsibility for overseeing ECD service delivery is the Children’s Secretariat (CS), housed within the State Ministry of Child Affairs (SMCA).