In 1948, with much of the world in ruins in the aftermath of the Second World War, countries came together to draft the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, to envision a better future for humanity. Among its various promises were two audaciously ambitious claims: “Everyone has the right to education” and “Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages.”
Ambitious, because at the time, only half of the world’s children were even going to primary school. Yet, over the decades, communities built classrooms and trained teachers. Today, about 90 percent of the world’s children complete primary school. Quietly, steadily—admittedly, sometimes too slowly—humanity pulled off one of its greatest achievements: enriching the lives of many millions with all the knowledge, skills, and empowerment that primary education provides.
But when that 1948 promise was turned into binding international conventions in the 1970s and 1980s, only free primary education was guaranteed to all. Early childhood education—including pre-primary education such as preschool and kindergarten—was entirely left on the sidelines. A few visionaries argued for it, but without success.
We now know what an opportunity was missed. Brains blaze in the early years. Children who benefit from pre-primary education start school ready to thrive—they repeat fewer grades, stay in school longer, learn more, and later they earn more, with the biggest lift for children from low-income families.
We hear from the children themselves how important the opportunity is. They tell us of the joy of learning about the world, exploring new skills, building confidence, and making friends. These first sparks can ignite life-long learning.
Opportunity is expanding. As the chapters in this book explore, countries on every continent are opening the gates to pre-primary education. But we are still far from universal access. Only about half of children of pre-primary age are enrolled; more than 175 million are not.
One of the most common and widespread barriers is brutally simple: cost. Registration fees, tuition, materials and supply costs, and “voluntary” payments that really aren’t. Fees that stack up into big walls for some families. In some places, a year of preschool can rival university tuition.
Remove the fees, and the picture flips: enrollment rises, children with disabilities can access the support they need, children arrive at primary school on-track, parents (especially mothers) can return to public life and paid employment, and families stop gambling with the future to survive the present.
The evidence is clear. The economics are compelling. The human stakes are undeniable.
Yet the silence on early childhood education in our core human rights treaties means the international human rights framework has not kept up with what children need to succeed.
It is time for a change.
In 2019, OMEP and the Latin American Campaign for the Right to Education met with the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child to share their research concluding that the legally binding human rights framework fails to adequately specify that the right to education should begin in early childhood.
Fast-forward to 2024, and a trio of countries from different regions and income levels—Sierra Leone, the Dominican Republic, and Luxembourg—took a bold idea to the UN Human Rights Council, the pre-eminent global human rights body in Geneva. They proposed updating international law to recognise every child’s human right to early childhood education, and to guarantee every child free public pre-primary education, beginning with at least one year. (They also proposed closing a second gap: guaranteeing every child free public secondary education.)
The idea has taken off. Over the coming years, governments will be meeting to consider and draft a new treaty—known as an “optional protocol”—that could update the world’s main children’s rights treaty, the 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Equally historic: children are participating in the process. More than 8,000 children—some as young as 3—from 40 countries have shared their views to inform the negotiations.
This is ambitious, and it might seem like a distant goal for some countries. But it would not be the first time that the international community set an ambitious goal on education. Ambition paid off in the past, and we believe it will pay off again.
Although law itself does not teach a child to count or to hold a pencil, it can move governments’ budgets, policies, and priorities. It gives advocates a tool, families a promise to point to, and politicians around the world a standard to meet.
The chapters ahead prove that free, high-quality, inclusive pre-primary is achievable in high-income and low-income countries, in cities and in rural communities. They show how removing fees, training early-childhood educators, providing outreach to families, and designing for inclusion, can transform lives.
If these pages leave you convinced—as they will—then add your voice. Urge your government, your local representative, your union, or your favoured political party, to back the proposed optional protocol to strengthen the right to education. Ask them to make accessible and free pre-primary a right for all.
