Reopening Childcare and Early Learning Services
UNICEF Guidelines for East Asia and the Pacific region
Highlights
The COVID-19 pandemic threatens this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for children in early childhood to develop healthy brains, bodies, and lives. While countries in East Asia and the Pacific have made substantial progress in investing in early childhood development (ECD), services supporting the development and learning of young children will likely suffer more than other education levels as they remain closed or in limited duration for fear of children contracting COVID-19.
This publication has been developed based on LACRO’s publication and adapted to suit the East Asia and the Pacific regional needs and context. It is intended for UNICEF country offices in the region to support their role in providing technical assistance to government partners and other organizations. The publication provides guidelines for reopening of services for young children aged 2 years up until the official primary school entry, either 5 or 6 years, and their families. It also includes a checklist to conduct rapid analysis of the services’ conditions and designing plans for a safe reopening.
Safe reopening of childcare and early learning services while preparing a strong response to future emergencies should be prioritized. The pandemic has meant prolonged closures of childcare centers, preschools, and early learning services. With no or limited ECD and preschool experience, young children are growing up without adequate stimulation, essential interactions, and school readiness competencies, thus exacerbating the developmental and learning loss. This may lead to damaging consequences in the years to come for many young children, especially those from poor and remote communities, from linguistic minorities, who belong to ethnic groups, children with developmental delays and disabilities, migrants or children affected by violence or abandonment, among others.
