Tackling the ECD Gap: Romani Children and A Good Start Policy
Recommendations From Pilots to Outcomes 15 March 2013 Brussels,
Belgium
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Why Invest in Quality Early Childhood Education and Care?
Ending the intergenerational transmission of poverty A return on
investment/preventive action Brain development/well-being of
children Preparation of school (preventing early school leaving) +
enhances chances to succeed in life Childrens rights and social
responsibility With support from the European Union
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Early education in TIMSS and PIRLS children with experience in
early numeracy (counting different things) have better results in
math and science; early literacy = much better reading; more years
of preprimary education = greater benefits for educational
achievements. With support from the European Union
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A Good Start (AGS) Facts With support from the European Union
Budget: aprox. 2.5 million EUR by EU, REF and other donors Target:
4000 beneficiaries (recurring beneficiaries: nearly 1800) 4
countries, 16 locations Timeframe: 24 months Partners: 12
implementing local partners, 3 international partners - ISSA, FSG
and SGI Evaluation and capacity building by the WB and UNDP Roma
involvement at all levels
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With support from the European Union
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International Step By Step Association Slovak Governance
Institute Fundacion Secretariado Gitano Cultural association of
Roma in Slovakia Civic Association EQUAL CHANCES County Association
of Roma Initiatives Methodological and Pedagogical Centre
Bratislava Ruhama Foundation Romani CRISS National Roma Centrum
Roma Education Center Ambrela Humanitarian and Charitable
Association of the Roma KHAM Romano Trajo Association Unity in
Diversity Foundation College of Nyregyhza Evaluation and capacity
building by the World Bank and UNDP Partner organizations With
support from the European Union
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AGS activities addressing key areas With support from the
European Union services provided for children aged 0-6 teachers and
parents trained and empowered with regards to child development
outreach activities need-based support enrolment fee, nutrition,
health service country-specific possible policy implications
analysed
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Challenges in four countries With support from the European
Union lack of proper legislative framework capacity problem, lack
of kindergarten facilities scarcity of ECEC services for age group
0-3 quality of ECEC services is often under the required standards
Roma families might have negative attitudes toward school
segregation in kindergartens and school education system
channelling Roma children to special education, or to zero classes
insufficient preparation with the language of instruction poverty
and material deprivation, poor housing, stressed parents who can
not afford toys or books, etc. health status of children
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Early childhood investment with the highest returns Parenting
practices Quality ECD programs for Romani children Access to ECD
programs of Romani children Components of the ECD model
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Results With support from the European Union From AGSs draft
Qualitative and Quantitative Evaluation: There was a considerable
impact on the project beneficiaries Access and attendance:
Non-enrollment statistics decreased from 89% to 83% in the 0-3 age
group and from 33% to 25% in 3-6. The average kindergarten
attendance improved between the two surveys from 4 to 4.2 days, or
in terms of non-attendance rate from 19.6 to 15.8 percent of absent
days (as reported by parents for the whole AGS project) Quality:
Trainings combined with continuous mentoring, monitoring and
follow-up were sufficient for improving quality of institutions
(BvLF sub-program). Parenting practices: Share of parents seeing
preschool education as very important rising to above than 85% from
60% in general. Your Story results reached beyond a simple
provision of skills and information. Mothers were satisfied with
Your Story sessions, their parental skills, reading literacy
improved, ECD professionals, teachers comfirmed that children
gained as well
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Lessons learned With support from the European Union Two years
of subsidized or free kindergartens for all Inclusive and
integrated approach to ECEC Variety of basic quality services
(home-based and community-based services for children 0-3/
kindergarten for children 3-6) Quality human resources (teachers,
health workers) Community empowerment with focus on mothers Greater
focus is needed in urban settings
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EU Regulation for 2014-2020 funding period Integrated use of
funds Thematic ex-ante conditionality (Annex IV(9) and IV(10)) a)
Education (early school leaving) b) Social-inclusion (poverty
elevation and Roma inclusion) General ex-ante conditionality
(Article 5.1.c and 87.3 and Annex IV(1)) a) Anti-discrimination ESF
equal access to quality early childhood education (Article 3.1.b.1,
3.1.c.ii) Identification + targeting of the most disadvantaged
micro- regions (Article 14.c and Annex IV) Promoting equal
opportunity + capacity building of partners With support from the
European Union
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Recommendations To strengthen ex-ante conditionality, emphasize
ECEC as a horizontal priority! Why? Enforce the realization that
ECEC is one of the most crucial factors for breaking the
intergenerational transmission of poverty Enforce the realization
that ECEC has high return on investment Prevent cuts in ECEC budget
due to economic crisis Enhance potential synergies between EU
funding and other tools (e.g. legislation, state budget) With
support from the European Union
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Recommendations Explicit reference should be made on early
childhood development also in key actions for ERDF support for
investment in early childhood development, education and training
infrastructure fostering non-segregated pre-school education With
support from the European Union
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Rough estimate of the costs of kindergarten capacity
development SlovakiaHungaryRomaniaFYROM Population5.4 million10.0
million19.0 million2.1 million Roma population0.5 million0.7
million1.9 million0.2 million Pre-school attendance rate of
children 71.7%88.5%77.1%25.2% Pre-school attendance rate of Roma
children 23.3%69.0%36.8%11.7% Proportioning, based on population
and pre-school attendance of children 1.3313.781,37 Proportioning,
based on Roma population and pre-school attendance of Roma children
1.7715.530,81 Investment costs 26-34 MEUR19.5 MEUR74-108 MEUR16-27
MEUR Operational costs, per year23-30 MEUR17.2 MEUR65-95 MEUR14-23
MEUR
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AGS in Zborov, Abranovce (SVK) - language issue, inter-
cultural relations, capacity problems employed teacher, Romani
teacher assistant and kitchen assist community mediators empowered
parents to enrol children material support tutoring for children
attending zero classes provided financial support to establish
preschool services, capacity development informal preschool class
for Roma children run by the church Example Quality With support
from the European Union
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AGS Skopje, Shuto Orizari, AGS Eastern-Macedonian localities
issues with official documentation, capacity problems, extreme
poverty, transportation joint investment in infrastructure
transportation provided, staff employed partly by AGS, partly by
the municipalities assisted registration of children to obtain
birth certificates, and vaccinations financing tuition fee material
support for families parenting activities with mothers facilitate
access to social services With support from the European Union
Example Access
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Supporting literacy for empowerment (HU) (Your Story)
developing parenting skills and knowledge to improve ECED outcomes
for young children Home visits by the community mediators Home
Pre-School Community Liasion program training and engagement of
local Roma as mentors and facilitators Example Parenting With
support from the European Union
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AGSs experiences in its target countries Sustainability
Comprehensive ECEC services (community-based services/health
services/curriculum/equality standards) Infrastructure/elimination
of capacity issues Desegregation (strategic-preventive action)
Development of teaching materials (ex. national language as second
language) Technical assistance to project implementers With support
from the European Union
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Sustainability of A Good Start REF is committed to scale-up the
good practices identified and developed AGS phase II started: 4
countries; 17 locations; 467,465; timeframe: 10 months; 728
targeted children working in synergy with the OSF Early Childhood
Program, UNICEF, BvL, ISSA strategical partnership with governments
larger-scale ECD project with impact evaluation in Slovakia and
planned in other countries as well With support from the European
Union
