A new Theirworld report reveals that – despite record aid spending on pre-primary education – millions of the world’s poorest children are still missing out on crucial support. That’s due to a chronic lack of funding by donor countries.
Analysis by the University of Cambridge for Theirworld shows that global aid to pre-primary education increased by 40% between 2021 and 2022 – reaching $282million, the highest since records began in 2002.
But this was driven largely by spending from a single donor – the World Bank. It invested $181million in pre-primary education in 2022, almost two-thirds of total aid to pre-primary education.
World leaders set a target in 2015 that every child should have access to quality early childhood development, care and pre-primary education by 2030. But nine years on the target is off track and there is no recognised plan in place to achieve it.
More than half of the world’s children – 350 million – do not have access to the childcare they need, according to the World Bank. About half of pre-primary aged children are not enrolled in any form of early education.
The United States is among five of the 37 democracies in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries that spends the least on early education and childcare.
Just 0.3% of its gross domestic product goes on early childhood services, a similar level to Turkey, Costa Rica, Ireland and Cyprus. Spending is highest in Iceland (1.7%) followed by Sweden (1.6%), Norway (1.4%), France (1.3%), and in Finland (1.1%).
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