Although access to primary education is practically universal in the region, and although UNICEF reports that four out of five children currently survive their critical first year of life, the learning capacity of children in Latin America is greatly diminished by poverty.

A clear indicator of the impact of improper early childhood development is school failure. Like Juan García in Nicaragua, many poor children begin primary school late. In addition to repeating grades frequently, poor children tend to drop out of school sooner than more well-off children. Although various factors contribute to the high drop-out rate, neglect during early childhood may be at the root of many cases of school failure.

Giving poor children access to infant and child care and preschool education may also help to counteract some of their disadvantages. In Lima, according to IDB calculations for 1995, only 54 percent of the children who had not attended preschool completed primary education, compared with 86 percent of those who did have access to preschool. At the regional level, projected secondary school enrollment in 16 countries shows that on average only 26 percent of poor students complete secondary school, compared with 63 percent of their more well-off peers.
Other IDB studies point to the direct impact of fewer years of schooling on the future livelihood of the most underprivileged young people: their prospects for obtaining well-paid employment will be seriously limited throughout their lives, in direct proportion to their years of education. In addition, their countries will pay a price in terms of lower work force quality and diminished productivity.

A study of the Perry Preschool Project carried out in Michigan (USA), tracked a group of children from poor households who participated in a preschool program when they were three and four years old. At their 27th birthday, the income of the program participants was found to be 60 percent higher than that of other young people from the same socioeconomic group who had not participated in the program.
Moreover, the Michigan study found that the $12,000 spent by the government per participating family over the life of the program resulted in estimated savings of $25,000 in services that were not needed later on. These findings support a growing body of evidence that social investments at the preschool stage yield very high returns, both for individuals and governments.

In general, the savings in government spending achieved due to early childhood intervention in care for poor children is two to four times higher than the cost of the preventive measures. Moreover, such investments do not involve huge amounts of money. For example, World Bank studies have shown that in order to bring preschool, primary and secondary enrollment and basic health care services for poor children up to the level of other children, Chile would only have to spend an additional one percent of its gross domestic product. In the case of Nicaragua, a country with higher poverty levels, such an effort would require an investment equivalent to three percent of national revenue.
For moral as well as for political, economic and social reasons there is an urgent need to ensure comprehensive development for all the children who, like Juan García, dream of studying and working to have the opportunity to live a better life.

In nearly four decades, the IDB has allocated more than $37 billion to finance social projects in Latin America and the Caribbean. The Bank earmarks close to half of its resources to social programs, and since 1985 it has financed 40 child development projects and allocated $290 million to programs targeting children and another $2.7 billion to programs that include child care components.

At the April 1998 Summit of the Americas held in Santiago, Chile, the Bank pledged to give new momentum to education projects by doubling the amount of lending for that sector to at least $5 billion during the next five-year period.

Child care--from gestation to entry into primary school--is an essential link for equity and efficiency in the overall array of social spending. While it represents a valuable promise for the future, this challenge requires the participation of all sectors of society and the political determination on the part of country authorities to break the poverty cycle.

For more information on IDB childhood programs, contact Ricardo Morán of the Social Development Division at (202) 623-2495 or by e-mail at ricardomo@iadb.org.