The importance of preschool

education for child

development
and international experiences
in expanding coverage
Presentation by Jan van Ravens at the
conference on:
Investing in Early Childhood Education in
Serbia
25 September 2012
Hotel Park, Belgrade

Economics of Early
Childhood

On a purely economic
basis, it makes a lot of
sense to invest in the
young Early learning
begets later learning.
And early success
breeds later success.
--James J. Heckman, Ph.D.
Nobel Prize Laureate
Economist

Early Intervention and Early Chil

Ramey & Ramey (1999). American Psychologist. Engle, P. (2005). Development

Approach 1: comparing
countries
This analysis was published in the leading
journal The Lancet (23 September 2011)
Authors compared low and middle income
countries with a total of 2.7 billion
inhabitants
Used three scenarios: 25% , 35% or 50%
increase in preschool enrolment
Estimated the gains in terms of educational
attainment and, from there, of GNP growth
And found a benefit to cost ratio of 6.4 to
17.6 (depending on initial preschool enrolment; on discount rate; and on
which scenario)

children
A preschool program in the USA
Comparing treatment group and control group
Benefit
to cost
ratio
of(constant
17, by
age
of 40
Benefits and costs
per participant
in US$
2000) the
and with
3% discount
rate

Disadvantaged children benefit

most

A quick look into the Black

Box

Looking to the West......

For Serbia: enrolment in pre-primary in 2009 at ages 3-5.5: 48%
For EU-countries: enrolment in pre-primary among 3 and 4 year olds
in 2005-2006.
For UK: only 3 year olds. At age 4, 90% of children are either in preprimary or primary

... and looking to the East

Enrolment at ages 3-6 by GDP per capita

Note: from international data-base. Data for Serbia may differ from
national sources.

Wealth disparities

(% children 36-59 months attending early education)

Short programs seem 4 to 6

times less costly than full-day
programs
Currency

Unit cost
full-day

Unit cost
half-day

Ratio:
full / half

Armenia

US$

216

34.2

6.32

Kyrgyzstan

Som

6010

1670

3.60

Macedonia

Denar

71590

11139

6.43

Poland

Zloty

4500

1200

3.75

Short or Fullday: some

examples
Kyrgyzstan: rapid expansion of short programs,
initiated by NGOs but taken ove by Government
Poland: where there are no Preschools
Big differences in West-Europe, for example:
Belgium. From age 2.5 onwards: fullday care in
small groups with close to 100% enrolment in
public institutions. Same in France and Italy.
Netherlands. Only from age 4: school-based
program of 5 hours per day on average in large
groups. No meals or beds. Childcare mainly
private. Special programs for disadvantaged.

How to finance scale up

Expand gradually: first from age 4,
then from age 3
Use existing preschool budget:
Raise efficiency
Raise full-day fee selectively (social
justice)

Use demographic dividend:

Use existing space in schools
Retrain primary teachers

Main conclusions
Serbia has every chance to expand coverage
of preschool education, provided that we:
promote enrolment in short programs, and
convince parents who do not need daycare
Serbia should first focus on the poorest but
eventually aim at universal coverage:
48% of the children are already on board!
children in the middle groups benefit as well
(A Vision for Universal Preschool Education. Zigler, Gilliam and Jones, 2006)