Early child care and education attainment in Ethiopia - Current status and challenges

Oct 15, 2026

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This article examines the first Education for All (EFA) goal from the Dakar Framework, focusing on how Ethiopia is expanding and improving Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) for vulnerable and disadvantaged children. It assesses ECCE status during the final EFA year and draws lessons from other countries for the post-EFA agenda. Document analysis shows rising pre-primary enrollment despite persistent underreporting at kindergarten centers, including improved counting of “O” class and child-to-child enrollments.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages7

Reading Time18 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Introduction

Literature Review

Defining ECCE

African Educational Research Journal Vol. 3(2), pp. 136-142, June 2015 ISSN: 2354-2160 Full Length Research Paper Early child care and education attainment in Ethiopia: Current status and challenges Tsegai Mulugeta Department of Educational Planning and Management, Mekelle University, Ethiopia. Accepted 21 April, 2015 | ABSTRACT
This article focuses on the first of the six Education for All (EFA) goal as conceived in Dakar, which calls upon countries to expand and improve comprehensive Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE), especially for the most vulnerable and disadvantaged children. Strong early childhood foundations —including good health, nutrition and a nurturing environment — can help ensure a smooth transition to primary school, a better chance of completing basic education, and a route out of poverty and disadvantage. The objective of the study is therefore, to assess the status of ECCE in Ethiopia at this last year of the EFA goals and learn experiences from other countries to incorporate in the post EFA goals. This review utilizes document analysis techniques from different sources. The study’s findings indicated that the enrolment of pre-primary education is increasing every year though underreporting remains a persistent issue in the kindergarten centers. Preprimary enrolment has increased dramatically starting from the year 2004 E. C.(2011/12) and this is because ‘O’ class and child to child enrolments have been counted as part of preprimary. In 2005 E. C. (2012/13) out of the estimated 7.71 million children of the appropriate age group (age 4 to 6) about 2.01 million children have been reported to have access to pre-primary education all over the country. Though the enrolment is small when compared to the appropriate age group, gross enrolment rate is higher than the previous year. This increase is due to the improved reporting of “O” class and child to child data in the year 2005 E. C. (2012/13) from primary schools. Finally, it is recommended among others that; there should be high-level political support, a consultative process to develop a national ECCE policy forchildren from birth to age 8, stronger and more partnerships between government and the private sector, and upgrading of ECCE staff, particularly through flexible recruitment strategies.
Keywords: Early childhood care and education, education for all, O-class. | | --- | | [E-mail: mulutks@yahoo.com](E-mail: mulutks@yahoo.com) , [mulutk@gmail.com](mulutk@gmail.com). | INTRODUCTION Children aged 3 to 7 years constitute a large section of the Ethiopian population according to the national census conducted in 2007 by Central Statistics Agency (CSA, 2009) . Over 16 percent of the then 74 million population, that is, more than 12 million were under this age category and above 10% were in the ages 4 to 6 years. However, Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) is one of the most neglected areas in Ethiopia. As to the Annual Educational Statistical Abstract of Ministry of Education ( MoE , 2013), the gross enrollment rate of Kindergarten (KG, ages 4 to 6) was only 6.2% and mainly concentrated in urban areas. Therefore, this paper focuses the first of the six Education for All (EFA) goals set in Dakar Framework for Action in 2000, which calls upon countries to expand and improve comprehensive Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE), especially for the most vulnerable and disadvantaged children. The main objectives of this paper are to: 1. Describe the state of ECCE in all levels (pre- primary, O-class and child to child) with special reference to Ethiopian education system . 2. Examine government policies addressing ECCE issues. 3. Examine patterns of ECCE in access, teacher and curriculum issues. 4. To bring up suggestions towards ensuring ECCE in the post EFA goals. LITERATURE REVIEW The great importance of early childhood was recognized in 2000 at the World Education Forum in the elaboration on goal 1 of the Da

FAQs

What EFA goal does the study focus on?

The study focuses on the first EFA goal from the Dakar Framework for Action, which calls for expanding and improving comprehensive Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE).

What method does the study use to assess ECCE status?

The study uses document analysis techniques drawing on different sources to assess ECCE status and related issues.

What trends does the study report for pre-primary enrollment in Ethiopia?

Pre-primary enrollment is increasing each year, but underreporting remains a persistent issue in kindergarten centers. The increase is linked to improved reporting and counting of “O” class and child-to-child enrollments in later years.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Stanford