Effective ECD programs can have a very high payoff by improving school readiness, and nurturing positive self-image and learning dispositions (World Bank 2010). The longitudinal study of the Perry Pre-school program indicates that those who had the preschool program had higher earnings, were more likely to hold a job, had committed fewer crimes, and were more likely to have graduated from high school than adults who did not attend preschool programs (Schweinhart 2003). Recent studies show that ECD is positively associated with enrollment in the first grade of primary education and potentially increases retention, completion and achievement. It was shown that in the United Kingdom children’s preschool participation contributed substantially to their intellectual development, independence, concentration and sociability in the initial three years of primary school (Sylva _et. al._ 2004, cited in UNESCO 2006). The gains were even higher when children participated longer in preschool education. Similarly, children in Bangladesh who received center-based preschool education outperformed their peers in the control group by 58 percent on a standardized test of school readiness (World Bank 2010). Effective investments in early child development can reduce inequalities perpetuated by poverty, poor nutrition and restricted learning opportunities. Increasing preschool enrolment to 25 or 50 percent in every low-income and middle-income country can have a benefit-to-cost ratio ranging from 6:4 to 17:6 (Engle et al. 2011). Early childhood is the most effective and cost-efficient time to ensure that all children develop their full potential. The returns on investment in early child development are substantial.

In reality, ECD remains lagging in many developing countries. The _2010 EFA Global Monitoring Report_ pinpoints that the gross enrollment rate of pre-primary education in developing countries is merely 36 percent in comparison to 80 percent in developed countries (2007 school year) (UNESCO 2010). What is worse, few countries have established national frameworks for the financing, coordination and supervision of ECCE programs for children aged 0-3 years. In terms of resources, OECD countries spent 9 percent of their educational budget on pre-primary education (OECD 2010a: 218), while most developing countries allocated less than 1 percent of the total education budget to early childhood programs (even including health expenditures), the figure is even lower in most African countries, less than 0.1 percent of the education budget (UNESCO 2010a).

The absence of appropriate ECD policies and programs largely undermines the effectiveness of basic education and education as a whole. By the time a child is old enough to attend school, there is already a wide disparity in cognitive skills and in emotional and behavioral development among children from households of different socioeconomic backgrounds. Low levels of cognitive development in early childhood strongly correlate with low socio-economic status as measured by wealth and parental education as well as malnutrition (Alderman 2011). Scarcity of investment in ECD could be a major barrier to the quality and cost-efficiency of overall educational delivery. An empirical study posits that lowering the parents’ price of schooling could stimulate increased enrollments and this proved effective in a wide variety of developing country settings. It was estimated that an investment of $7.5 billion per year would help 15 16