To date, 175 million children aged between 3 and 5 do not have access to education worldwide. Aware that children need to be given appropriate cognitive, social and emotional care from an early age, Action Education has made early childhood education one of its priorities.

Education starts at an early age

All children have the right to education, as stated in the International Convention on the Rights of the Child. Early childhood education is therefore also a right, even if it takes place before compulsory schooling. It is essential to a child's development and to lifelong learning. 

• Children who attend at least one year of pre-primary education are more likely to develop the basic skills needed to succeed at school and are less likely to repeat or drop out. 
• Children enrolled in pre-primary education are at least twice as likely to be able to read, write and count at an earlier age than children who have not benefited from pre-school learning. 
• In countries where more children attend pre-primary education programmes, significantly more children complete primary education and acquire the minimum skills required in reading and mathematics by the end of primary school. (UNICEF Report, 2019: A world ready to learn: Prioritizing quality early childhood education)

Early childhood: a key to securing the future

On the other hand, children under the age of 5 who do not attend school are exposed to major risks such as delayed development, malnutrition, even childhood illness and early death, all the more so when these children are exposed to major crises. 

• In 64 countries, the poorest children are seven times less likely to take part in pre-school education programmes than children from the wealthiest families.
• In 33 countries affected by conflict or disaster, more than two-thirds of pre-primary-age children are not enrolled in a pre-school education programme, even though they are the ones who stand to benefit most from it.  (UNICEF Report, 2019: A world ready to learn: Prioritising quality pre-school education)

In the face of such threats, the States meeting at the United Nations in 2015 adopted Sustainable Development Goal n°4, which aims, by 2030, to ensure that all girls and boys have access to quality early childhood development and care and pre-school education that prepares them for primary education.  

Pre-primary education is still provided by private institutions and is rarely accessible to the most vulnerable and marginalised groups.

How does Action Education facilitate access to education from early childhood?

Because for Action Education, everything starts with education, we are developing programmes to facilitate children's access to education from an early age. We are working to : 

• Building and equipping early childhood centres 
• Training qualified teachers and staff
• Raising parents' awareness of the importance of early childhood education and care, and of children's physical, emotional and cognitive development.
• Call on governments to devote more resources (human and financial) to the early childhood sector.

Our early childhood education projects

In Vietnam, for example, Action Education has enabled the development of three community nursery schools and 21 satellite schools in the most remote areas. These schools cater for almost 2,000 children aged between 2 and 8.

In a village in Togo, Action Education has developed community early childhood centres. This project has helped to raise awareness in the community and to provide appropriate care for toddlers, which was previously non-existent. Today, all the village's children aged between 3 and 5 are enrolled in pre-school.

Our ambitions