World’s poorest children missing out on pre-primary education

Children in school uniform Credit: Bright Kwabena Kyere Eight in 10 of the world's poorest children - almost 50 million boys and girls - are missing out on vital education in the first few years of their life because of a chronic lack of funding in pre-primary education, according to a new report published today. It is nothing short of a tragedy that world leaders are failing to prioritise spending in this area Pauline Rose Spending on pre-primary education accounts for less than 1% of the international community's aid to education - equivalent to just 34 cents per child, per year - according to analysis by Cambridge University academics for Theirworld, the global children's charity. Research shows that pre-primary education is crucial to a child's development and that children who miss out fall behind even before they start primary school. Children enrolled in at least one year of pre-primary education are more likely to develop critical skills and are less likely to drop out of school. Yet spending on pre-primary education remains consistently low, with donors on average committing 37 times more to post-secondary education, the analysis shows. Of the world's top 30 donors to education, eight do not spend a single cent on pre-primary education, including the Netherlands, Qatar, Sweden and Saudi Arabia. The US, France, Denmark and Germany are among the 16 countries that commit less than 0.5% of their education aid budget to pre-primary education.