From Systems Change to Better Early Learning Outcomes: Emerging Lessons from a Four-Country Research Program

How can developing countries build systems that deliver quality early learning for preschool-aged children, equitably and at scale? This symposium will discuss emerging findings from the World Bank's Early Learning... [ view full abstract ]

How can developing countries build systems that deliver quality early learning for preschool-aged children, equitably and at scale? This symposium will discuss emerging findings from the World Bank's Early Learning Partnership (ELP) Systems Research Program in Liberia, Ethiopia, Tanzania, and Pakistan. With support from the UK Department for International Development (DfID), the program seeks to investigate the key levers for change at the systems level, as opposed to assessing the impact of changes in the proximate determinants of learning such as books and new pedagogies. The research teams will discuss the challenges and opportunities of bridging system-level frameworks to specific research hypothesis to measurement of learning outcomes in the field, with an emphasis on the tools developed by the Measuring Early Learning Quality and Outcomes (MELQO) initiative. The symposium will also discuss common systems-level challenges for early learning across these diverse country contexts, including the challenge of building an early childhood education workforce in the context of rapid scale-up of ECE provision.