Article Link: http://exchangepress.com/article/challenges-facing-early-childhood-programs-worldwide/5018106/
•• TO READ THIS COMPLETE ARTICLE, CLICK ON THE PRINTABLE PDF ICON IN UPPER RIGHT CORNER OF WINDOW ••We invited the World Forum National Representatives and Global Leaders for Young Children to share the challenges early childhood education faces in their countries. We had an overwhelming response, with reports from 37 early childhood professionals from 29 countries. We have included below responses, as well as a list of all the respondents.
Azerbaijan �" Ulviya Mikayilova,
Open Society Institute Azerbaijan
Since 2006, Azerbaijan maintained its unprecedented economic growth with real GDP expected to grow by 33%, six times higher than the forecast world average. As a result GNI per capita increased from US$950 in 2005 to US$1,240 in 2006.# However, expenditures on education decreased as a share of total budget, from 19% in 2003 to 13.4% in 2006, and 12.8% in 2007, with only 7.2% of it allocated for preschool and primary education.
According to the official data only 18.2% of preschool-age children are enrolled in preschool education, thus considerably affecting the percentage of entrants to primary education with ECCE experience, which is only 8%. Decline
in preschool enrollment can be attributed both to falling quality and to limited accessibility of preschools. At full ...