“CDB has taken a policy decision that early childhood education will be a priority for 21st century education. To this end, the Bank will deliberately work with our Borrowing Member Countries to reconfigure available capacity at the primary level to accommodate additional ECD places, establish standalone nursery schools and pilot model ECD centres to accommodate new classes in parallel with the training of early childhood teachers,” Monica La Bennett, Vice-President (Operations), CDB told attendees.

“The evidence compels action,” he said. “Inequity begins in the first days of life, and so must our efforts to close the gaps that prevent scores of children from realizing their right to develop fully and thrive.”

“It is a rallying call to development partners, governments, the private sector and caregivers as a whole, to place our youngest citizens at the centre of development,” he added.

“We are in the process of building a modern early childhood institute, and it is not just teachers who are going to be trained,” he said. “We are opening up the opportunity so that scholarships can be given to the elderly and retired in our communities, who would otherwise be babysitting, to have an opportunity to train, then go back to their homes with the understanding that these are the values that you impart to youngsters.”