Nursery Management: International - A world of difference

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Globally almost half of all three- to six-year-old children (159 million) are deprived of access to pre-primary education, according to the World Bank. This is despite worldwide recognition that a child’s first years provide a window of opportunity to prevent future inequality.

Investing in this area improves children’s cognitive, linguistic, social and emotional skills, and makes them more likely to learn better at primary school and to earn higher wages later as adults.

PERU: ADDRESSING INEQUALITY IN LIMA

Just over half of all three-year-olds in Peru were enrolled in some form of early education in 2015, according to the country’s National Institute of Statistics and Information. Among four-year-olds, the proportion was 90.7 per cent, while among five-year-olds it was 95.3 per cent. However, inequality of access is a problem. An Oxford University study from 2012 suggested children from poorer households were more than seven times less likely to attend an early learning centre than those from households classified as ‘less poor’. The World Bank in 2015 said 9 per cent of the country lived in extreme poverty – living on less than $2.5 (£1.87) a day – while just over 19 per cent were considered to be in moderate poverty on $4 (£2.99) a day.