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Last week World Forum Alliance member UNESCO unveiled the 2007 Global Monitoring Report on results in the achievement of Education for All goals set in 2000. This report, Strong Foundations: Early Childhood Care and Education focuses particularly on the years before a child goes to primary school and also reviews general progress toward Education for All. The report observes that despite the proven impact of early interventions on child well-being and future achievement in school, very few countries, especially in the developing world, have national policies for early childhood that integrate care, health, and nutrition with education. Yet those children who are poor and disadvantaged stand to benefit most from such programs. Some highlights of this report include...

• Some 781 million adults (one in five worldwide) lack minimum literacy skills; two-thirds are women. Literacy rates remain low in South and West Asia, sub-Saharan Africa, the Arab States, and the Caribbean.
• About 80% of developing countries have some sort of formally established maternity leave, although enforcement varies.
• Almost half of the world's countries have no formal programs for children under 3.
• Enrollment in pre-primary education has tripled since 1970, though coverage remains very low in most of the developing world.
• After sharp declines in the 1990s, pre-primary enrollments in transition countries are slowly recovering in Central and Eastern Europe, but still lag in Central Asia.
• Most regions are near gender parity in pre-primary education.
• The children most likely to benefit from early childhood care and education programs �" those most exposed to malnutrition and preventable diseases �" are the least likely to be enrolled.
• Early childhood care and education staff in developing countries typically have minimal education and pre-service training, and are often relatively poorly remunerated.
  
  The 2007 Global Monitoring Report will be a central focus of the 2007 World Forum on Early Care and Education in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. For details about World Forum, go to http://www.childcareexchange.com/wf/wf2007/
  
  

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