World Bank Calls for Investment on ECDE

In China, the nine-year compulsory education for children ages 7 to 15 years has become universal. But for children under six years old, especially those in rural areas, they have limited access to early childhood development and education.

The World Bank has issued a report calling for the government to include early childhood education and development as a basic public service so as to raise the country's competitiveness.

Yingying has more.

The report, produced by the World Bank in collaboration with China's National Population and Family Planning Commission, shows that although China has reached about 50 percent gross enrollment for the 3-6 age group in 2009, rural children are under served, particularly the extremely poor and ethnic minorities. And the 0-3 age group in the whole nation is particularly under represented.

Kin Bing Wu, World Bank's Lead Education Specialist, stresses the importance of early childhood education and development.

"The brain development is most active in the first two years of life. If we intervene at the time which is most critical by providing nutrition, health care and early stimulation, we could significantly strength the brain capacity, and also strengthen subsequent physical and cognitive development of children."

According to the report, in 2008, China's public spending on early childhood development and education was only at 0.01 percent of GDP, or 1.3 percent of the total public expenditure on education.

Kin Bing Wu says that China should focus more funding on early childhood development and education because it will yield tremendous high economic return.

"In a well-known American pre-school program, for every dollar invested, over eight dollars in benefits was returned to society and to the program participants later on due to higher academic achievement, much longer duration of study, less dropout rates, higher wages, more stable marriages and lower criminal offenses."

The report indicates that in China, about 60 percent children under the age of six live in rural areas. Only 40 percent of them have access to education and other childhood development services.

Ru Xiaomei, an official with the National Population and Family Planning Commission, says China should provide more childhood development services for preschool children, especially those from rural areas.

"In the past, we focused more on early childhood education, but haven't paid enough attention to other aspects in children's development such as nutrition, cognition and language ability. The situation in rural areas is even worse. This might result in inter-generational transmission of poverty."

It is reported some 53 centers for early childhood services have been set up across China, the majority of which are located in the less developed central and western regions.

For CRI, I'm Yingying.