ECCE in UgandaGood potential, yet more to do
National ECCE Symposium19-20 July, Protea Hotel, Kampala
Session 2: Evidence on the status of ECCE in Uganda
1Importance of topic, Ugandan context, nature of studies
3Over-arching statistical and qualitative “story”
4Resulting policy implications
2Some detailed statistical and qualitative findings
July 2018ECCE Symposium | Evidence on the status of ECCE in Uganda 2
Brain development
• Consequences into middle age
• Brain development takes place in a short window that includes pre-primary years; limited catching up
• Investment should better track brain growth
Economic impact
Long term
• The longer you have to recover an investment, the higher the rate of return. Plus, knowledge is built on knowledge. 7% to 10% ROI to ECCE investment.
Short term
• Fiscal savings from improved school flow-through to completion: approx. US$ 274 per completer, or $274 million per million completers.
July 2018ECCE Symposium | Evidence on the status of ECCE in Uganda 3
Importance of ECCE
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
0
0.05
0.1
0.15
0.2
0.25
0.3
0.35
0 5 10 15 20
% e
d. b
ud
get p
er c
hild
in p
op
Kgs.
Approx. brain weight gain andapprox. school spending* by age
Brain weight gain Spending
Sources: Adapted based on Debakan and Sadowsky 1978 under Creative Commons license; Estimation based on World Bank EdStats datase. *: LI Countries
Demographics
• Growth of 4-5 age group down from 3.7% in 1990 to 2.6% now, slowing fast: reap the dividend?
Comparative system capacity
Inefficiencies in spending in Uganda
• Current cost per completer is $274 higher than it needs to be, representing a waste of 43% of the budget, or approx. US $140 million per year.
July 2018ECCE Symposium | Evidence on the status of ECCE in Uganda 4
Uganda’s context
Enrolment Uganda Sub-Saharan
Africa
Pre-primary 15% 32%
Primary 115% 100%
Primary completion 53% 70%
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
Pre-prim. enr. Prim. enr. Prim. comp. (%)
Per
cen
tage
Comparative Enrolment
Uganda SSA
Cambridge Education• Over 500 interviewees• 23 Organisations at National Level• 5 Teacher Colleges• 10 Districts• 30 Parishes• 143 ECD Centres surveyed – 69% rural, 31% urban
Ark• Mapping pre-primary services in 19 sub-counties in West Nile• 218 ECD Centres recorded• 114 ECD Centres surveyed
RTI• Nationally representative, all regions• Random sampling with formal statistical properties• 1440 Primary 1 pupils randomly selected from 120 schools
across 24 districts• 1439 interviews with their specific teachers, 1318 with
parents/guardians• 50% girls; 50% boys• Even coverage of wealth segments
July 2018ECCE Symposium | Evidence on the status of ECCE in Uganda 5
Statistically and qualitatively significant
Results
1Importance of topic, Ugandan context, nature of studies
3Over-arching statistical and qualitative “story”
4Resulting policy implications
2Some detailed statistical and qualitative findings
July 2018ECCE Symposium | Evidence on the status of ECCE in Uganda 6
Headline findings - access
Uganda’s access to pre-primary is ½ of what it is in the rest of Sub-Saharan Africa (UNESCO).
1Around 30% of
children attend some
form of pre-primary
Official statistics
around 10-15%:
under-registration?
For more see here
2Over 70% of ECD
Centres rely on fees
for their operating
income
3The poorest have
least access
Those with low
income attend ½ as
much as those with
higher income
62% of parents who
do not use pre-
primary: finances are
the barrier
4Only 13% of ECD
Centres care for 1-3
year olds
5Enrolment is
increasing over time,
but hard to say by
how much
EMIS statistics show
increases, but may
partly simply
represent increased
registration
July 2018ECCE Symposium | Evidence on the status of ECCE in Uganda 7
Headline findings - quality
Quality was found to be highly uneven. There are some good practices, but no real quality
assurance and standardisation across the system.
1No districts have
dedicated ECCE
staff or budgets
Effective quality
control
essentially
impossible
2Around 40% of
caregivers had no
appropriate
qualification
3More than 50% of
ECD Centres
don’t meet MoES
criteria
Further data on
compliance here
4While there are
many models, no
one model clearly
emerges as best
practice in terms
of quality
No effective
quality assurance
and quality
tracking
5In majority of
ECD Centres: no
appropriate
learning materials
40% had no play-
based learning
Corporate
punishment
observed in many
ECD Centres
6Vast majority of
ECCE providers
self-report as not
proficient in
handling children
with disability
Around 9% of
children have
some form of
disability (RTI)
July 2018ECCE Symposium | Evidence on the status of ECCE in Uganda 8
1Importance of topic, Ugandan context, nature of studies
3Over-arching statistical and qualitative “story”
4Resulting policy implications
2Some detailed statistical and qualitative findings
July 2018ECCE Symposium | Evidence on the status of ECCE in Uganda 9
• Access to ECCE is low and biased against the poor
• Little evidence of quality assurance; quality highly variable
• On quality: staffing, budget, and lack of/unclear/unrealistic standards (especially outcome standards) seem an issue; even mere registration is a problem
• Lack of and low-quality ECCE encourages repetition in early grades
• Repetition and over-enrolment in early grades undermine system efficiency: 2 years of effort for every grade advanced
July 2018ECCE Symposium | Evidence on the status of ECCE in Uganda 10
Summary of main findings
1Importance of topic, Ugandan context, nature of studies
3Over-arching statistical and qualitative “story”
4Resulting policy implications
2Some detailed statistical and qualitative findings
July 2018ECCE Symposium | Evidence on the status of ECCE in Uganda 11
Emerging recommendations - access
Consider targeted subsidies for poor
Build on provision platforms that already exist
Simplify registration
Improve data on
access by registering
and counting non-
registered
July 2018ECCE Symposium | Evidence on the status of ECCE in Uganda 12
Emerging recommendations - quality
Simplify
classification
system
Dedicate budget
and staff to quality
support at district
level
Invest in quality
assurance
especially with
focus on
outcomes
Clarify, simplify
standards, focus
on outcomes,
including private
sector regulation
Set up systemic
quality
observation and
reporting, spread
lessons: best
practices and best
models emerge
Clearer, simpler
quality standards
communicated to
ECCE Centres
Prizes and
excellence
awards to
emerging best-
practice ECCE
Centres
Enhance role of
parents and
parenting in
ECCE and
foundation years
July 2018ECCE Symposium | Evidence on the status of ECCE in Uganda 13
Emerging recommendations – system efficiency
Improve consistency of
ECCE and foundation
years’ policies
Control repetition and
age-for-grade once
more ECCE options are
available
Early years curriculum
should “ramp up”
children more gradually
into Primary 1
Improve quality of
foundation years in line
with improved ECCE
July 2018ECCE Symposium | Evidence on the status of ECCE in Uganda 14
• Targeted subsidies, based on improved selection from existing platforms – can it work?
• Simplification and clarification of quality standards, and more focus on outcome standards?
• Spend more to provide and train staff who can create quality assurance and induce better models to emerge?
• Better line up policies and quality of delivery between pre-primary and foundation years in primary?
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Policy questions
• Use this evidence in ongoing policy dialogue
• Discuss practical limits of the findings and suggestions
• Ensure that emergent policy is as evidence-based as is possible and practical
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Possible next steps
Cambridge Education
http://www.camb-ed.com/intdev
Kate Martin [email protected]
Derek Nkata [email protected]
Laura Garforth [email protected]
Ark
http://www.arkonline.org/epg
Richard Graham [email protected]
Jacklyn Makaaru [email protected]
RTI
http://www.rti.org
Tara Weatherholt [email protected]
Luis Crouch [email protected]
July 2018ECCE Symposium | Evidence on the status of ECCE in Uganda 17
Further information
Annexes
Cambridge Education found that almost 50% of ECD Centres were neither licensed nor registered.
In Ark’s sample, more than 60% of Centres were not registered.
When Centres are unregistered, this leads to skewed educational data and an underestimate of the total number of children accessing ECCE. It also indicates that a large proportion of Centres that may be unsupported, uninspected and unregulated.
ECCE Symposium | Evidence on the status of ECCE in Uganda
Why is registration impacting on data?
While the majority of ECD Centres surveyed met with standard infrastructure requirements, aspects of quality that relate to ‘deeper’ aspects of child stimulation and wellbeing are less often catered for.
Overall, Cambridge Education’s research showed that 58% of ECD Centres did not achieve a score that would enable them to pass the MoES minimum requirements for operating.
ECCE Symposium | Evidence on the status of ECCE in Uganda
What compliance tells us about quality
July 201820
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