[{"bbox": [83, 105, 1147, 159], "category": "Text", "text": "Democracy and the Gender Action Plan III. The proposed action will primarily contribute to the progressive achievement of SDG 4, particularly to 4.2."}, {"bbox": [159, 185, 394, 218], "category": "Section-header", "text": "## 2.2 Problem Analysis"}, {"bbox": [83, 229, 1147, 470], "category": "Text", "text": "The evaluation of the 11th EDF Education Sector Reform Programme (ESRP) revealed several key challenges to the provision of ECD and PPE in Namibia. A major problem is funding: pre-primary education gets a disproportionately small share of the MoEAC budget. Pre-primary education spending peaked to 4.2% in 2019/20, (from an annual average of 1.6%), reflecting the EU Budget Support of N$49.1 million for the construction of classrooms and procurement of learning materials for pre-primary learners. Average spending in PPE is expected to average 3% of the MoEAC budget over the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) 2022/23 – 2024/25. On average 95% of the PPE spending is employment costs, leaving little for operation and infrastructure. Similarly, spending towards ECD is very low at N$24 million is approximately 0.4% of the total MGEPESW budget allocation for 2022/23. Most of this support is for subsidies to educarers."}, {"bbox": [83, 495, 1147, 709], "category": "Text", "text": "A consequence of the above stated underfunding is a corresponding under-supply of both ECD Centres and PPE classrooms. ECD, which currently falls under the responsibility of the MGEPESW, is largely community-led, CSO/Foundation and private sector providers deliver a bulk of the services. The quality of what is provided varies greatly and depends in part on the level of parental contributions. Affordability is therefore an issue, and although the MGEPESW provides a subsidy based on the level of qualification of the educarer, it is not made available to all educarers looking after children in ECD centres. Whilst it is not a salary subsidy as such as part may be used for other ECD running costs, it forms a key part of educarers' remuneration. Overall it represents only about one-eighth of a typical qualified pre-primary teacher's salary and allowances, highlighting the remuneration disparities in the system."}, {"bbox": [83, 733, 1147, 920], "category": "Text", "text": "The lack of overall available funding available also negatively impacts on enrolment rates, which are low, 38% in PPE and 29% in ECD respectively. Many children enrol for Grade 1 when they are not school-ready, contributing to weak outcomes including high repetition rates. These have come down in recent years slightly but remain high at 17.9% in Grade 1; 12.5% in Grade 2; 10.6% in Grade 3. On entry to Senior Primary, they jump to 18.1% in Grade 4⁵. The Enrolment rate of 0-4 year old children in ECD centres is very low (13%), and encompasses more girls (52.1%) than boys (47.9%). A majority of those enrolled are in the age bracket 4-5 years (24.6%) and 6-7 years (18.7%). The dropout rate as % or enrolment reached 12% in 2021, as compared with 6% before COVID in 2019⁶."}, {"bbox": [83, 946, 1147, 1130], "category": "Text", "text": "The quality of services in Integrated Early Childhood Development (IECD) centres and pre-primary relies on a number of factors, including: the qualification and capacity of educarers and PPE teachers, including their ability to deals with children with disabilities; parental engagement; learning resources; provisions of nutritious meals; supervisory support to educarers and PP teachers; use of technology in delivery, including e-learning platforms. Hence, in 2021, 46% of the educarers had received no training. This includes short term 7-12 week basic trainings delivered by MGEPESW, which are not often assessed and validated on the ground. There is a lack of quality assurance."}, {"bbox": [83, 1156, 1147, 1292], "category": "Text", "text": "The Namibia Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI)⁷ shows high inequalities in income distribution and standard of living, with 43.3% of the population classified as multi-dimensionally poor. This is particularly affecting the youngest children (56% for the 1-4 years), compared to 28% of the general population. Access to quality ECD is greatly impacted. Parents in poor communities are disadvantaged as they are unlikely to have the financial resources to enrol their children in private ECD centres."}, {"bbox": [83, 1317, 1147, 1556], "category": "Text", "text": "Malnutrition, often manifested in stunting, remains a major concern. It now stands at 22.7% of children under the age of 5, compared with 24% in 2007. Together with parental engagement, school feeding is considered as a major incentive for sending kids to schools, including ECD. Parental contributions not only top up educarer incomes but also have to cover the costs of running ECDs, consumables etc. The MGEPESW has regulatory and quality assurance functions. It monitors existing and new ECD centres in order to ensure compliance with ECD standards. However, due to insufficient capacity and financial resources, ECD centres are not visited regularly and the ones not meeting minimum standards are rarely closed down. The MGEPESW runs a seven-week training programme for Educarers, but as it is very short of public sector funding, these are run intermittently and usually Educarers are only permitted to attend once they have been practicing for 3 years. Access is variable between regions and linguistic communities"}, {"bbox": [72, 1587, 781, 1613], "category": "Footnote", "text": "⁵ Table 31; Ministry of Education, Arts and Culture, EMIS Education Statistics, 2020"}, {"bbox": [72, 1612, 1098, 1637], "category": "Footnote", "text": "⁶ An Analysis of survey data on early childhood development centres in Namibia, 2021, UNICEF - draft report 5 June 2022"}, {"bbox": [72, 1636, 1045, 1661], "category": "Footnote", "text": "⁷ Namibia Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) 2021 by Namibia Statistics Agency, UNDP, UNFPA and UNICEF"}, {"bbox": [578, 1662, 653, 1689], "category": "Page-footer", "text": "Page | 6"}]