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In Malawi, a landlocked republic in South East Africa, early years provision takes the form of Community Based Child Care settings (CBCCs). They rely mainly on volunteer workers, who receive minimal training and resources from government and non-government organisations, and to a certain extent they have been successful: the proportion of eligible three- to five-year-olds attending has risen from 3 per cent in 2000 to more than 45 per cent in 2015. This does, however, mean that the majority are not accessing CBCCs.
While it is recognised that the provision for children with special educational needs and disabilities is inadequate, it is a difficult issue to tackle. In low-income countries, where resources are stretched to almost unimaginable levels, inclusion can seem like an almost insurmountable challenge. Also, up to 80 per cent of parents and carers view Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) as preparation for school, rather than an important time of learning and development in its own right. After all, if a child is perceived as not being ‘school material’, why prepare them?
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