International Day of Education 2025: The Case for Prioritising Quality Early Education in Africa

A recent blog post from the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) and UNICEF calls for a transformative shift in public spending across Africa, with a focus on early childhood development (ECD). The blog highlights three key issues:

Current Spending is Skewed: Public social spending in Africa disproportionately favours older children. Only 6.5% is allocated to children aged 0-5, who make up approximately a third of the continent’s child population. Shockingly, just 2% of education budgets are directed towards pre-primary education, with some countries investing nothing at all.
Inefficient Use of Resources: Neglecting early childhood development is inefficient because investments in later education are less effective without a solid foundation built in the early years. Research demonstrates significant returns on investment in ECD, ranging from 7-13% and above, due to improved early development outcomes (cognitive, physical, and emotional development).
Prioritising the Early Years: Public spending on early childhood is a more efficient, effective, and equitable use of limited resources. GPE and UNICEF advocate for measures such as child grants and increasing the allocation for early childhood education to the recommended 10% of national education budgets.

Children in Crossfire’s Perspective

Children in Crossfire is witnessing the real-world implications of these issues through our programmes in Tanzania. Since 2016, the Tanzanian government has introduced significant policy changes, making one year of pre-primary education an integral part of basic education and committing funding through capitation grants to schools.

While this shift is still relatively recent, national enrolment in pre-primary classes has already shown encouraging increases. However, simply expanding access is not enough. To fully realise the benefits outlined in the GPE and UNICEF blog, early childhood education must also be of high quality.

Research consistently shows that the advantages of early childhood education are directly tied to the quality of provision. Low-quality education can lead to negative outcomes; studies reveal that children in poor-quality settings may fail to achieve developmental gains and, in some cases, could even experience setbacks.

What Does High-Quality Pre-Primary Look Like in Tanzanian Classrooms?

To help the Tanzanian government maximise the return on its investments, Children in Crossfire is working at scale in the Dodoma region, modelling high-quality provision across 800+ classrooms. Our approach to quality includes:

Trained Educators: Teachers with specialised training in early childhood development who understand how to support children’s learning and well-being.
Appropriate Resources: Access to age-appropriate, low-cost or no-cost materials and play-based learning opportunities.
Strong Relationships: Building meaningful relationships between children and educators.
Intentional Planning: Focusing on social-emotional skills, language development, and cognitive growth through purposeful learning strategies.

Children participating in our flagship Watoto Wetu Tunu Yetu pre-primary education programme have shown notable outcomes. These include improved school readiness, enhanced social-emotional skills, and better foundational literacy and numeracy by Grade 2.

A Call to Action for Policymakers

Governments and policymakers must prioritise investments in quality improvements, including workforce development, curriculum standards, and adequate resources. The early years are a critical period for brain development, and high-quality early childhood education is a powerful tool for ensuring children’s well-being and future success.

As we mark International Day of Education 2025, let us commit to transformative actions that give every child a strong start in life.

For more insights, see the GPE and UNICEF blog: Fit for the future: New research reveals the need to shift public spending in Africa to early childhood. Available at https://www.globalpartnership.org/blog/fit-future-new-research-reveals-need-shift-public-spending-africa-early-childhood.