Financing, data, and equity issues challenge early childhood education in Latin America, the Caribbean

Strengthening early childhood education in Latin America and the Caribbean will require better financing, stronger data systems, and more inclusive services, experts addressing a recent panel discussion on early childhood development in the region have said.

The panel of experts, which included specialists in global financing and early childhood education, were speaking at a recent colloquium organised by the JN Foundation and The University of the West Indies (UWI) School of Education in partnership with the Dudley Grant Early Childhood Resource Centre.

Dr Emre Ozaltin, lead economist for the Caribbean at the World Bank, noted that sustainable support for early childhood development (ECD) will require a diversified financing approach. He called for long-term financing strategies that foster coordinated support from development partners and the private sector to ensure continuity and effective services even in the face of disasters.

“A diversified approach to funding in this area may be best – a combination of public budgets, targeted subsidies, and innovative financing mechanisms such as public private partnerships and targeted taxes,” he said.

“Sustainable ECD financing is not a one-size-fits-all. Approaches tailored to social, political and economic realities, and critically, the flexibility to be able to respond quickly when disasters do strike are needed.”

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He also underscored the need to invest in robust data systems, “to be able to observe the actionable information to improve the [existing] systems that we have”.

Professor Zoyah Kinkead-Clark, professor of early childhood care and education at the UWI School of Education, also emphasised the need for greater monitoring and evaluation in the sector to ensure that programmes and actions are effective. Using the recent passage of Hurricane Melissa in Jamaica as an example, she also said that by integrating evaluation with comprehensive support services, stakeholders could better meet the needs of children affected by crises to, among other things, ensure equity and continuity of care.

“We really need to be using that monitoring and evaluation to make the key decisions that are needed to guide the sector. We understand that many young children and their families are vulnerable, especially now, and this highlights the need to provide the kind of support they require. As a region, perhaps we can start thinking about ‘wrap-around services’ for our children and their families,” she said.

Adding to the conversation, Dr Rebecca Tortello, education specialist at the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), also highlighted the need for improved learning environments, including more sensory-based spaces and programmes in early childhood institutions (ECIs) to support children’s social, emotional, physical, and cognitive development.

Schools badly damaged

“It’s important that we find ways to replicate more of those spaces, following a model created by UNICEF with the Rockhouse Foundation at Savanna-la-Mar Infant Academy - one of the schools badly damaged by Hurricane Melissa. That model included clinical support through a partnership with the Ministry of Health and Wellness,” she said.

“You heard the minister [of education] speak about a research screening centre [to come] in Portland to complement the one that exists at Mico [University College]. We had about eight of the sensory or clinical spaces before the hurricane, and we need more such support at the early childhood level to enable the necessary follow-up along the National Early Screening Pathway, which starts with the Child Health Development Passport and moves through multiple assessments, including the Jamaica School Readiness Assessment developed by UNICEF and the UWI Department of Child Health and administered by the Early Childhood Commission (ECC). These sensory spaces, if strategically placed around the island, can be a possible way to bridge a key gap in the pathway,” she added.

Tortello said the way forward should also include improved infrastructure at ECIs, such as ramps and accessible toilets, to make facilities more inclusive. As she handed over the Pathway document, she also emphasised the need to expand access to teaching resources, including accessible digital textbooks now available on UNICEF’s Learning Passport Jamaica website at jamaicalearningpassport.org, as well as professional development programmes like the UNICEF-developed Inclusive Early Childhood Education course offered by the ECC and the Jamaica Teaching Council annually.

Dr Tracy-Ann Morgan-Smith, senior director of regulations and monitoring at the ECC, noted that along with ensuring that services are fully inclusive to accommodate children with disabilities and other special needs, improving the early childhood sector, particularly for Jamaica, will also mean reviewing legislation, implementing teacher licensing, and enhancing disaster-mitigation measures.

“We’re looking at putting in the legislation for system strengthening [to cater to] the whole aspect of the licensing and mandatory areas for teachers to do their professional development. Areas like toxic stress and the trauma children deal with after a disaster. That is critical. We also have to look at our climate resilience, how we now respond to education in emergency situations,” she said.

She noted that with the recent passage of Jamaica’s Data Protection Act and the evolving digital age, attention will also turn to how the early childhood legislation can protect children and others whose data is collected and used.

The two-day JN Foundation and UWI School of Education Dudley Grant Early Childhood Resource Centre Colloquium was held from November 27-28 at the UWI Regional Headquarters under the theme: Let’s Shape Tomorrow, Together. It brought together educators, policymakers, and sector leaders to examine the state of early childhood education in the region and chart the way forward.