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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.
Explore the library for more education resources.
Photo: Jack Taylor/Save the Children
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RecommendedLaying 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
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RecommendedEnding the Hidden Exclusion: Learning and equity in education post-2015
Save the Children International’s new report ‘Ending the hidden exclusion: Learning and equity in education post-2015’, looks at how to ensure that all children are both in school and learning. Millions of children suffer from a ‘hidden exclusion’ from ed
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RecommendedFulfilling the Promise: Ensuring the post-2015 education agenda delivers on equity and learning
“Fulfilling the Promise” calls for an ambitious post-2015 education framework that strongly prioritises equity and learning. One unified post-2015 education agenda – one which aligns the United Nations Sustainable Development Framework with the Education
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RecommendedWalk the Talk: Review of donor's humanitarian policies on education
Education is a fundamental right for all children in all situations. Yet in the world today, about 58 million primary school aged children are denied their right to education (UNESCO, 2015). Half of them, 28.5 million, live in conflict and crisis affected
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RecommendedFutures on the Line: Yemen's children missing an education
The humanitarian situation in Yemen has deteriorated month on month since the current armed conflict escalated in March 2015. Today 21.2 million people (or 82% of the population) are in need of humanitarian assistance, including nearly 10 million children
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RecommendedWindows into Early Learning and Development
Windows into Early Learning and Development sheds light on what can be done to give all children the best chance in life in their first five years. Poverty, stunting, and lack of cognitive stimulation mean that nearly half of 3- and 4-year-old children in
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Mainstreaming Inclusive Education: Sharing good practices
Save the Children defines inclusive education as “one dimension of a rights-based quality education which emphasises equity in access and participation and responds positively to the individual learning needs and competencies of all children. Inclusive ed
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Good Soil Good Fruit: Nurturing Cambodia's youngest
Early Childhood Development (ECD) can be understood as a process that starts at conception and continues through around the age of 8 years old. During this critical period the foundational architecture of the brain is constructed, as children develop moto
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Early Childhood Programming and School Readiness in Anganwadi Centers in India
The Early Childhood Care and Education intervention of Save the Children in Bengaluru aimed to bring about qualitative changes in Anganwadis to improve learning levels of children through integrated intervention in the domains of health, nutrition, hygien
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Collaborative Change: Leveraging international IDELA partnerships to benefit young children
Achieving access, equity and quality in early childhood programs is hindered by a lack of robust evidence from implementation research and impact evaluations, knowledge brokering and collaborative partnerships between communities of research, practice and
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Where it all Begins: Early childhood education for equal opportunities
Quality early childhood education (0-3 years) is very important for the development of children's cognitive and socio-emotional skills. High costs, bureaucracy, political-organizational issues and ideological-cultural beliefs are problems that make access
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The Best Start: Inequality and opportunities in the first years of life
Educational poverty is defined as the deprivation of the ability to learn, experiment, develop and freely develop skills, talents and aspirations. Early childhood represents a crucial period in the child's life, it is the moment when one begins to know an