Sierra Leone Early Childhood Education Outcomes Fund

Intervention

Social or environmental challenge

1. Limited but growing financial resources to the sector.
2. The recent prioritisation of ECCE by the Ministry of Basic and Senior Secondary Education (MBSSE) also means that several of the administrative and institutional structures needed to support the rapid expansion of the sector are still in development. Firstly, there is limited data, especially on quality of ECCE provision and on the functioning of the more informal parts of the ECCE sector such as community ECD centres. Limited oversight and monitoring of ECD centres have resulted in an incomplete picture of the ECCE provision. In turn, this leads to an absence of evidence to inform policy, particularly on informal provision and its quality. Finally, as the sector develops, interventions have been more focused on activities/inputs and outputs rather than on outcomes, such as child development. In following the GoSL existing commitment to impact, it will be critical moving forward that accountability structures focus on impact on child development to ensure that existing efforts are translated into improved outcomes for children.
3. Process and structural quality are limited due to infrastructure constraints and insufficient pedagogy rollout. There is a limited use of age-appropriate pedagogy as the new standards have not been translated into practice yet. Some pre-primary centres lack basic facilities: for example, 24% of pre-primary centres had no access to running water in 2021, and most teachers are not trained in using child-centred approaches. These structural constraints combine to create a situation of insufficient supply of ECCE services. Additionally, there is a limited use of age-appropriate pedagogy as the new standards have not been translated into practice yet. A lack of capacity to systemically monitor the process quality of these centres also limits the information available on their suitability to meet instructional quality standards. There are also demand-side forces that impact the rollout of process quality improvements, such as limited parental awareness of the importance of ECCE and age-appropriate and play-based pedagogies for children’s holistic development and learning, which leads to limited demand for these programmes in some areas

Description of the intervention

The primary objective of this programme is to expand access to quality early learning opportunities to achieve the ultimate goal of improving holistic child development outcomes for children aged 3-5 in Sierra Leone to better prepare them for the next stage of education. This programme aims to complement existing programmes, such as the proposed GPE funding which aims to expand the pre-primary sector through establishing P0 classrooms within primary schools with UNICEF acting as grant agent. Through complementary efforts, rather than doubling interventions of the same type, this programme can help rapidly expand access to ECCE and find synergies with other programmes to benefit implementers across both programmes.

Target population

Children ages 3-5 inclusive

Outcome metrics

• Centres are safe for children before they open During the first year of implementation, payments will be tied to the number of centres that are established in existing infrastructure which meet minimum safety and child protection requirements. This metric was included to lower the risk transfer to providers and to translate government's priorities in meeting minimum requirements for the opening of new centres.
• Increased access of children ages 3-5 within teacher child ratios Since access remains a critical challenge in Sierra Leone and one of the top government’s priorities, the programme will pay for the number of children aged 3-5 years attending ECD centres within teacher child ratios. This metric was also included since the ECCE sector in Sierra Leone is nascent and there is a need for building ECCE awareness through community engagement activities, which providers are well placed to deliver and will ultimately result in an increase in the number of children attending ECD centres.
• Settings and practices meeting quality standards – Structural quality Considering that structural quality is a key determinant of the quality of ECD centres, the programme will tie payments to the number of ECD centres that achieve minimums or levels (i.e., thresholds) of defined quality (e.g., medium, high). Desired levels of structural quality will be defined using the ECCE standards checklist. However, specific details of how this checklist can be translated into desired levels of quality will be determined in close collaboration with the ECCE measurement expert and in close collaboration with MBSSE.
• Settings and practices meeting quality standards – Process quality In addition to structural quality, the programme will incentivise process quality given its close link with holistic child development outcomes.
• Improved holistic child development outcomes As part of EOF’s mission to focus on outcomes, the programme aims to link a substantial portion of the payments to children’s holistic developmental outcomes

Last data update

Data for this pipeline project/programme was last updated in August 2024.