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Early Childhood Care and Development
The first six years of a child’s life is a time of great promise and rapid change, when their developing brain is most open to the influence of relationships and experiences. However, millions of children across the world are at risk of not reaching their full potential because they do not get the care and stimulation they need in the early stages of life.
To achieve the SDGs and ensure that all girls and boys, especially the most deprived, are developmentally on-track we need to start early. Save the Children works with families and communities to help children to develop foundational learning skills in the years leading up to school. Save the Children also works with communities and partners to advocate for policies and practices that recognise the value of starting early and investing in cost-effective, inclusive quality approaches to ECCD.
Our goal is that all children will access quality inclusive early childhood care and demonstrate improved child development outcomes.
Save the Children’s experience shows that to reach the most vulnerable children, we need to go beyond preschools. High quality caregiving must be supported both in homes and in early learning centres to build strong foundations for young girls and boys. Moreover, rural, linguistic minority and refugee children need urgent support as they are falling behind. Save the Children works to address these gaps through targeted interventions, such as early learning programmes that support children’s learning at home in emergency and post-disaster settings, among remote and nomadic communities, and in areas where preschools are not available or accessible.
Photo: Jack Taylor/Save the Children
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Save the Children's Education Strategic Direction, 2016-2018
Every child has a right to education as written in international law, and Save the Children will not rest until all children enjoy that right. In addition to being a right, good quality education is the means by which we equip our children with the knowle
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Lessons in Literacy: 8 principles to ensure every last child can read
Over the last several decades the world has made incredible progress in getting children into school. However, there is more work to be done to ensure that every last child is learning. While the focus on access to school has been important, it has been p
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ELM- Emergent Literacy and Math Toolkit
Literacy acquisition, the process of becoming a reader, begins in the earliest stages of a child’s life. This period when children are not yet reading and writing but are acquiring foundational skills and tools they need in order to read and write is call
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International Development and Early Learning Assessment Technical Paper
Early Childhood Care and Development (ECCD) programs help ensure that young children fulfill their right to healthy development and education, and ultimately assist them in reaching their full potential. In the ECCD field, there are few international tool
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Lessons in Leadership: Save the Children’s Experience of Co-leading the Education Cluster
A report commissioned by Save the Children intended to provide a record of experiences so far in co-leading the Education Cluster. It takes an inside look at Save the Children's four years of co-leadership of the Education Cluster, both at global and coun
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Parental Education: Manual for preschool teachers
The Manual is designed for preschool teachers/parental education facilitators; it has been developed by the Armenian representative office of Save the Children International under the "Action for Child Health and Education" programme. It is designed for p
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Moving ahead on education: A focused strategy for achieving our education goals 2012-2015
This paper sets out Save the Children’s education strategy from 2012-2015. The overall goal of Save the Children's education policy, advocacy and country programmes is to ensure that all children and young people enjoy their right to a good quality educat
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Laying the Foundations: Early childhood care and development
Early childhood care and education are vital to improving child survival and children's overall development. Programmes offering this support are a vital tool to reduce poverty. The report looks at the current state of play. Which children are accessing t