Describing inequities and identifying groups of families and children who are vulnerable and are unreached by existing programs or projects is fairly straightforward. Information collected about social conditions, the condition of children, and the level and distribution of services should be more than adequate for doing this (see tabs 2 and 3). The problem becomes how to reach the unreached in a way that moderates rather than reinforces inequities.

There are two basic strategies for seeking equity and reaching the unreached: universal treatment, and differential treatment favoring disadvantaged populations.

Equity and universal treatment
One example of a program that seeks equity through universal treatment is the provision of primary schooling for all children. Today there is a tendency to extend formal preschooling to all children in the year before entering primary school, and a requirement for universal preschooling has been written into law in Argentina and Trinidad and Tobago, for example. The proposal for universal preschooling is politically attractive for some countries, appealing to teachers unions, and easy to monitor because it requires simply counting children. But it is also limited, and the extent to which it can produce equity among children in their preparation for primary school, for example, is an open question. Why?

• The proposal is framed in terms of 100 percent coverage of children in preschools, not the condition of the children in those schools or the effect on their condition of participating in the preschools.

• Attacking problems of inequity at age five may be too late. Differences in the cognitive development of children begin to emerge at 18 months or earlier.

• Guaranteeing universal coverage will not guarantee the same quality of service to all groups, particularly if private and public systems continue side-by-side.

• Children's needs during their early years may differ from one place to another, requiring adjustments in the content and perhaps the goals of the service. A universal program may fail to provide such adjustments.

This brief reflection on universal treatment suggests that program managers and their counterparts in negotiating a project should recognize the limits of a universal strategy as well as its potential advantages for equity.

Equity and differential treatment
A second strategy—one that does not necessarily contradict the first and may complement it—is to target vulnerable or disadvantaged populations with specific interventions. Many small, localized programs have been organized throughout the region to reach children who are at the social margins because they live in poverty or in dispersed rural areas, or because they are in a minority group or a group affected by migration or internal strife. Some programs focused on the poor or rural or dispossessed have grown to cover large numbers of children.

Most of these programs, whether small or large scale, have been nonformal or alternative activities—community-based and employing local education agents who have been given some initial training and then supported by a supervisory structure. The community is often expected to provide the site in which children or parents gather. Examples of such programs include:

• Programs of itinerant preschool teachers (Ecuador).

• Programs using midcourse secondary students as education agents in rural preschools and providing them a guaranteed subsidy to continue their secondary schooling after their service (Mexico).

• ECCD programs for children of migrant workers (Mexico).

• Bilingual (and sometimes bicultural) programs for young children (Bolivia).

• Radio programs to reach parents.

The main question raised about programs for reaching the unreached, a question not yet adequately answered, concerns their quality, a question related in part to their compensatory nature. Such specially designed projects are potentially advantageous because they focus attention on overcoming identified inequities and because their targeting allows scarce resources to be directed toward those most in need. But the issue of quality needs to be kept in mind so as to avoid creating inexpensive, "second-class" programs for the disadvantaged.

Issues in reaching the unreached
In trying to reach the unreached, several questions arise that are not easy to answer. First, do the unreached want to be reached? An analysis of demand and factors conditioning demand in Chile suggests that the lack of preschool offerings is only a minor factor in the relatively low coverage of preschool programs for children under age six; cultural traditions and beliefs favoring keeping children at home loom large (Waiser 1995). A study in Mexico asked parents of children in a program to combat educational disadvantage (PARE) why their children did not attend preschool. While 60 percent of parents in rural areas cited lack of availability of a preschool place, only 12 percent of those in urban areas gave that reason. For those who had access to preschooling, distance and economic problems were prominent reasons for keeping a child out of preschool. And 12 percent of all parents cited lack of interest or a feeling that preschool was unnecessary as a reason why their child did not attend preschool (Myers 1995b). These studies, along with general experience, suggest that creating demand must be an important part of any program directed to the unreached.

Second, how can the problem of distance be overcome where the population is dispersed or the terrain difficult? Most education programs tend to organize children in sizable groups, for a lower (and thus less costly) ratio of teachers to children. That requires bringing children to the program rather than the other way around, a strategy much more difficult to apply for children under the age of six, who cannot walk long distances, than for children of primary school age. Alternatives that have been tried include:

• Using home visits by an education agent to prepare parents or siblings to serve as the home-based education agent for the young child.

• Reducing the required number of children who must be present in a place before a program can be established.

• Supporting informal local initiatives in settlements of less than 100 people.

• Providing transportation to school for children.

• Using radio.