Nurturing Children’s development

Stunting affects 149 million children under 5, mainly in low- and middle-income countries. The UKRI GCRF Action Against Stunting Hub research project investigates the multiple drivers of stunting in India, Indonesia and Senegal, to inform evidence-based interventions supporting child development.

Current research highlights the importance of children’s learning environments to nurture their growth and development. Stunting is best tackled when combined with nutrition and psychosocial interventions (i.e. interventions that influence how caregivers interact with children). In order to identify effective routes for large-scale intervention, it is fundamental to profile the educational environments that children under five experience. This seminar will present the work led by the Cognition and Education workstream to profile early childhood education provision in India and Senegal.

We will first present how we reviewed India and Senegal’s early childhood education system via a documentary analysis. We will share an infographic that can be used by fellow researchers, policy stakeholders and professionals to profile early childhood education in other countries. We will then hear from the research leads in India and Senegal who have adapted and piloted a classroom observation grid (the Measuring Early Learning Environments – MELE) to measure key characteristics of classroom environments and educational quality in their respective countries. We believe our work has the potential to inform our progress towards the global objective of ensuring education quality for all (UN Sustainable Development Goal 4).

We welcome attendees’ perspectives, comments, and questions and will dedicate 15 minutes for a Q&A at the end of the seminar.