How can we guarantee access to inclusive and high-quality care and preschool education to every child born on our planet?
This was one of the main questions of the UNESCO World Conference on early childhood care and education (ECCE) that took place in Uzbekistan’s capital Tashkent.Representatives of the member states of the organisation as well as experts from all over the world attended the conference to discuss strategies and make commitments.“One-quarter of the world population of children age 5 to 6, that represents 33 million of children are still out of pre-schooling." Says Stefania Giannini UNESCO Assistant Director-General for Education. "So that’s why we are here, to mobilise member states, to mobilise all stakeholders, to mobilise all the communities which are engaged in education to make early childhood education happen."At the beginning of the conference, guests visited the exhibition with photos of children in pre-schools across the globe.
Unlike those children, many others do not have such opportunities.UNESCO Global Education Monitoring report has shown that access to ECCE is still dependent on wealth even in high-income countries, as Anna Cristina D’Addio, Senior Policy Analyst, at UNESCO Global Education Monitoring explains.“Exclusion is not linear.
There are pockets of extreme exclusion, with children that belong to particular groups that are really left behind. In Europe for instance Roma children are left behind.