Proportions of international education aid for early childhood learning fell to just 1.1 percent post-pandemic, far short of an agreed 10 percent target, leaving early childhood development in poorer countries particularly vulnerable to sudden fluctuations in those donors’ spending, new research shows.

The research highlights “continued, chronic” underfunding of pre-primary education in many of the world’s poorest nations, after years of slow progress and pandemic-related cuts.

Questionably, whatever spending that has happened has been pumped into lower-middle income countries rather than the very poorest nations.

Although early childhood education is widely understood to be essential to children’s successful cognitive and social development and to breaking cycles of poverty in poorer countries, according to the new report’s findings, any progress towards the target ground to a halt following the Covid-19 outbreak.

The most recent figures, from 2021, indicate that the proportion of education aid spent on pre-primary education internationally during the pandemic dropped by approximately $19.7 million, from 1.2 percent to 1.1 percent.

A report emanating from the study was released last month by academics at the University of Cambridge for the global children’s charity, Theirworld.

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A 2017 Cambridge research for Theirworld resulted in Unicef formally recommending that 10 percent of education aid should be allocated to pre-primary education. Last year 147 UN Member States signed a declaration agreeing to this target.

The report identifies several reasons for the decline including spending cuts by the World Bank’s International Development Association, EU Institutions, and by the governments of wealthy nations, such as the UK.

“Hundreds of millions of children around the world are missing out on high-quality pre-primary education despite clear evidence that prioritising this will improve their life chances. The overall trend is very worrying,” said Prof Pauline Rose, Director of the Research for Equitable Access and Learning (Real) Centre at the University of Cambridge’s Faculty of Education.

“Although some progress has been made towards the 10 percent target, it started from a very low base. Other education levels are still being prioritised amid a general decline in aid spending. International commitments to pre-primary education are good, but we need concrete action.”

Over the past seven years, Theirworld and the Real Centre have systematically monitored aid spending, tracking progress towards this goal, using the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s creditor report system, which gathers information about the aid contributions of individual countries and international agencies such as Unicef and the World Bank.

Prioritisation is key

Their report shows that over the past 20 years, the proportion of education aid spending that goes to pre-primary education has never exceeded 1.2 percent.

Between 2020 and 2021, spending on the sector dropped from $209 million to $189.3 million: a decrease of 9.4 percent, compared with a 6.9 percent fall in education aid overall and a 0.9 percent decline in total aid spending.

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In 2021, aid spending on post-secondary education – the vast majority of which never leaves donor countries – was 27 times higher than that spent on pre-primary, despite widespread acknowledgement of the need to invest in the early years.

According to the report however, the 10 percent target is attainable. Unicef, which has consistently prioritised pre-primary education, spent 30 percent of its education aid budget on the sector in 2021. Italy increased spending from $2.6 million to $38 million.

The majority of this was allocated to the ‘National Strategy on Human Resource Development’ which focuses on supporting the Jordanian government in strengthening its education system.

The research shows that pre-primary aid is concentrated from a few donors.

Pandemic-induced drop in spending occurred because the World Bank cut its investment in pre-primary education from $122.8 million to $70.7 million.

Canada, EU Institutions, France, Norway and the UK, also cut spending. In 2021, eight of the top 35 donors allocated no funds to pre-primary education at all.