It is important to emphasize the affordability aspect of Early Childhood Development (ECD) programs and to highlight whether investment in ECD in countries like Pakistan are practical or not. To address this concern various cost benefit analysis have been undertaken to investigate this issue; following is an analysis presenting its monetary benefits.
Most studies claim that opportunities lost during the early years of childhood can rarely be compensated at a later stage; therefore it is very important that every child be given the opportunity to develop to their full potential. Therefore this analysis measures cost effectiveness of the returns of ECD programs especially in terms of education, health and adulthood.
During the early years children experience rapid growth especially in terms of brain development; by 8 years a child has attained approximately 50% of there body weight while the brain development is about 90%. The brain is very sensitive to environmental influences such as intellectual stimulation, opportunities for expression, forming of social relationships, stress as well as level and quality of nutrition. ECD programs provide an environment that fulfills these needs.
Firstly ECD programs are cost effective since they result in the conservation of monetary resources in the educational sector such as, reduction in repetition and drop out rates. Those children who repeat classes due to poor performance, absences or poor school readiness result in wastage or resources where parents and the school spent double the time, effort and money in providing the child the same level of knowledge. Furthermore, dropping out, especially before the fifth year of primary school leads to loss of investment since children have not spend enough time at school to gain a lasting impact of education. Therefore a significant amount of resources of the education sector is wasted where repetition artificially increases enrollment, class sizes and teacher pupil ratios, number of textbooks and teaching aids required. Thus it exerts an upward pressure on facilities and a downward pressure on quality and education system effectiveness.
Linked to school persistence are other indirect positive impacts of ECD programs such as more willingness to work hard, the ability to get on with teacher and pupils; they also have a greater ability to avoid pitfalls such as involvement with drugs and crime. Furthermore it is also associated with greater earnings of parents or caregivers since they have more time to themselves to get a job or focus on their careers. Also the welfare system has to spend less on containing crime and deviance.
Besides these returns of ECD programs, better health, nutritional status and lower mortality are also strongly correlated with ECD interventions. ECD contributes directly and indirectly in improving mother and child healthcare; pre natal and post natal care ensures reduction in low birth weight babies and better health of mothers and survival of children. Moreover it increases awareness among the parents and children to adopt healthy habits and know how to take better care of themselves thus conserving resources spend on medication and cures. Nutrition also plays an important role in the development of a child's physiology and brain development. Poor nutrition can result in stunting and reduced physical growth. Besides a good diet measures for disease prevention and vaccination is also important. Thus awareness, disease prevention and healthier mother and children reduce the monetary burden on the limited health faculties of the country. On an individual level it saves parents and caregivers money which is left to be better utilized elsewhere.
In addition to this, ECD programs also seem to have a generalized positive impact on success in adulthood. These effects include greater ability to raise their own children, greater closeness to friends and family also they have a higher tendency to be self supportive. Further it is also correlated with longer and more successful marriages. These factors produce monetary and otherwise immeasurable benefits that help better functioning of society and provide citizens who are not a burden on other people thus reducing the dependency ratios.
Overall the monetary expenses of ECD programs are more than compensated where society and the individual experience return over a long period of time on a multidimensional level. Benefits include direct monetary compensation, for instance to the health care and educational system as well as indirect ones such as the development of children into stable confident adults. Therefore from an economic standpoint the ratio of benefits to cost is high as indicated in other cost benefit calculations that highlight how ECD programs potentially have a high rate of investment.
