“Investing in the Early Years and Early Reading and SDGs” lecture by Dr. Eduardo Bustillo

As one of the “World Bank and the Sustainable Development Goals” (SDGs) series, on December 27th 2021, Dr. Eduardo Bustillo, former sector manager of the World Bank, gave a lecture on “Investing in the early years and early reading and SDGs”. Dr. Eduardo pointed out that SDG 4, especially in Early Childhood Development (ECD), requires comprehensive support for child development, including health, nutrition, education, home environment and maternal care and it is critical to provide education earlier and longer in order to improve children’s cognitive and non-cognitive abilities.

Based on the Perry Program as a case study, he clearly showed that ECD can contribute to the reduction of disparities, such as years of schooling and income. However, in reality, there are large disparities in the development of young children depending on family income and the country’s wealth. He referred to the issue that many international organizations have wrongly assumed that “countries know how to teach math and reading”. Therefore, when international organizations and the World Bank implement ECD projects, they need to consider the following six key issues: 1) teaching effectiveness, 2) instruction time, 3) teaching materials, 4)mother tongue, 5) useful assessment, and 6) parental involvements.

Through Dr. Eduardo’s presentation and the subsequent discussion, it was a valuable opportunity to gain deeper insights into the importance of ECD and how to implement ECD in order to foster quality human capital.

Authored by: Kohei Uno (Master Student)