Tackling Gender Inequality from the Early Years: Strategies for Building a Gender-Transformative Pre-Primary Education System

Access to early childhood education has increased over the last two decades, with global enrolment rates showing gender parity in access among boys and girls. Despite this gender parity in access, the pre-primary education system does not always deliver on its potential to tackle gender inequities and address harmful gender stereotypes while they are being absorbed by the youngest learners. As such, this research explores the ways in which pre-primary education can become more gender-transformative at a system level and presents 11 key strategies to support this goal. The strategies are organized around five interconnected action areas: planning and budgeting; curriculum; workforce development; family and community engagement; and quality assurance. These strategies can help governments and policymakers to proactively incorporate gender-responsiveness into the design and implementation of their pre-primary education policy and programming, following a system-wide perspective. [For the research briefs in the "Gender-Transformative Pre-Primary Education" series, see: "Addressing Gender Inequalities from the Early Years of Education," ED627662; "Supporting Gender-Transformative Parenting through Pre-Primary Education Systems," ED627664; "Integrating Gender into Pre-Primary Education Systems: Tools for Gender-Transformative Policy and Programming," ED627666; "A System-Wide Approach to Tackling Inequalities from the Early Years," ED627669; and "Investing in Pre-Primary Education Workforce Development for Gender Equality," ED627670.]