Early learning and child care and Education for All

Under the leadership of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), Education for All (EFA) is an international commitment to provide quality basic education for all children, youth and adults. From the outset, early learning and child care has been an integral part of EFA. The Jomtien World Declaration on EFA (1990) asserted that “learning begins at birth.” Ten years later the international community (including Canada) met again in Dakar and identified six key education goals to be achieved by 2015. The first goal was “expanding and improving comprehensive early childhood care and education, especially for the most vulnerable and disadvantaged children.”

Each year, UNESCO issues an EFA Global Monitoring Report that assesses where the world stands on the provision of basic education. The 2007 edition of the Report, released today (October 26, 2006) at the United Nations in New York, focuses on early childhood education and care, which the authors say is “still treated as the poor relative in education.” The Canadian launch of the Global Monitoring Report will be November 3rd at Ryerson University in Toronto (contact info@ecdgroup.com for details).

To mark the release of the 2007 Global Monitoring Report, this Issue File collects resources from EFA, as well as other useful UNESCO documents on early learning and child care.

1990 Jomtien World Declaration on Education for All

2000 Dakar Framework for Action, Education for All

The six EFA goals

GLOBAL MONITORING REPORT 2007

Strong foundations: Early childhood care and education
October 2006
- Full report
- Summary

Press release : Early childhood education the forgotten link claims new report published by UNESCO
October 2006

Learning is child’s play
October 2006
To coincide with the release of the 2007 Global Monitoring Report six specially-commissioned articles on early childhood care and education are the centre-piece of the October issue of the UNESCO Courier.

PREVIOUS GLOBAL MONITORING REPORTS

2006 - Literacy for life

2005 - The quality imperative

2003/4 - Gender and Education for All: The leap to equality

2002 - Is the world on track?

UNESCO POLICY BRIEFS

To support policy work, UNESCO publishes a series of two-page briefing notes on early childhood policy issues.

- Index of all briefs

Selected briefs:

Pre-primary education: The valid investment option for EFA
Soo-Hyang Choi, March-April 2006

The early childhood workforce in ‘developed’ countries: Basic structures and education
Peter Moss, October 2004

Curriculum in early childhood education and care
John Bennett, September 2004

Quality information for a quality early childhood care and development
J.R.A. Williams, July-August 2004

Early education financing: What is useful to know?
John Bennett, May 2004

Role of early childhood care and education in ensuring equal opportunity
Jody Heymann, November-December 2003

OTHER UNESCO DOCUMENTS

What education for the young child?
Education Today (Newsletter of UNESCO’s education sector), July-September 2005

Consolidating governmental early childhood education and care services under the Ministry of Education and Science: A Swedish case study
UNESCO Early Childhood and Family Policy Series no.6, April 2003

Early childhood education policy co-ordination under the auspices of the Department/Ministry of Education: A case study of New Zealand
UNESCO Early Childhood and Family Policy Series no.1, March 2002

		»  List of topics

This list in not intended to be an exhaustive examination of this topic; for a more comprehensive list, search the Childcare Resource and Research Unit resource library catalogue Childcare Information Resource Collection (CIRC).