Learning and schooling are not the same thing. What does it mean for children to learn? What skills and knowledge do we hope children will have by the time they are young adults?
An “essential package” of ECD services includes child stimulation, along with food and nutritional support for both children and nursing mothers. Much of the focus is on improving out-of-home care for young children in order to facilitate development and school readiness. A proper education takes two decades — 8 000 days— but this longer view has been neglected. The World Bank report, Re-Imagining School Feeding, notes: “If current education funding trends hold, by 2030, 800-million children — half a generation — will lack the basic secondary skills necessary to thrive in an unknowable future.”
If well implemented, they can get children into school, help keep them in school, and enable them to learn while they are there. They can help address multiple dimensions of poor nutrition — undernutrition, obesity, and micronutrient deficiencies. They can start to balance gender inequalities and they can also function as a social safety net — easing household income by as much as 10-15%. This is an enormous saving for those living on the bread line.