Publication: Early Child Development in China : Breaking the Cycle of Poverty and Improving Future Competitiveness
Date
2012-07-06
ISSN
Published
2012-07-06
Author(s)
Wu, Kin Bing
Young, Mary Eming
Cai, Jianhua
Abstract
In the past 30 years, China has reached
the target of lifting 500 million people out of poverty. The
rate of increase in human development indicators has become
the second fastest in the world, allowing China to enter the
ranks of middle-income countries. As the most populous
country, accounting for one-fifth of the world's
population, its transformation has been unprecedented in
human history. Scientific evidence and international
experience in the past 10 years have found that early child
development (ECD) is key to human development, as it lays
the foundation for the rest of life. Early child development
includes physical, psychological, emotional, language,
behavioral, and social development. Experience in the early
years of life will determine healthy development and
happiness in the rest of life. Research has found that
investment in ECD is the most cost effective strategy to
improve human development. In China's demographic
transition, the population of children and youth is
declining in absolute numbers, and the investment of raising
them can increase on a per capita basis. This study has been
in the making since 2009. It was prepared during a time when
China was charting its course of development under the 12th
Five-Year Plan (2011-2015). The study began with an
agreement between the World Bank and China's National
Population and Family Planning Commission (NPFPC) for a
collaborative study on ECD. Concurrently, China's
Ministry of Education invited the World Bank to conduct an
overall review of the education sector, in order to provide
it with inputs and suggestions as it prepared China's
national plan for medium- and long-term education reform and
development (2010-2020). In reviewing achievements and
challenges in the education sector, the Bank found that
there was much room for expanding and improving preprimary
education for children ages 3-6. The Ministry of Education
appreciated the Bank's identification of this need and
set ambitious goals for preprimary education in the national
education plan.
Citation
“Wu, Kin Bing; Young, Mary Eming; Cai, Jianhua. 2012. Early Child Development in China
: Breaking the Cycle of Poverty and Improving Future Competitiveness. Directions in Development ; Countries and Regions. © Washington, DC: World Bank. http://openknowledge.worldbank.org/entities/publication/4d9685fb-745d-5fde-a41b-5a2495faeb4c License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
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