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20 EFA Mid-Decade Assessment●●●Are the programmes comprehensive covering both care and education?Who is providing these services as part of more formal and non-formalsystems?Do the children have a positive learning experience?The mid-decade assessment provides opportunity to begin to fill in the data gaps onECCE.Summary of Peer Group Discussions2.2 Key Issues to be Assessed and StudiedThe signing of the Dakar Framework during the 2000 World Education Forum madecountries realize the importance of giving equal emphasis on ECCE, also referred to insome countries as early childhood care and development (ECCD).Education planners from South Asia, however, noted that the “care” part has not beengiven much emphasis by countries. Priority has also been given to formal schoolingover informal ECCE centres. Although in Nepal, pre-primary schooling has beenintegrated into formal schooling.There is also the question of access to ECCE centres. In Sri Lanka, for example, mostof the ECCE centres are in the urban areas, limiting the access of children in ruralareas to pre-primary education.The cost of getting quality pre-primary education is also very high, to the point of beingprohibitive in some countries, due to the lack of government regulation. But in theMaldives and Bhutan, the governments have set a ceiling for fees in pre-primaryschools. In Bhutan, the National Government also provides teaching materials andteacher training for ECCE.As EFA Coordinators from South Asia noted, countries have their respective ECCEprogrammes, but the question is how effective they are, and how wide is the coverageand reach of these programmes.Meeting participants discussed and gave their recommendations on how ECCE canfurther be improved in countries, and in which areas monitoring and assessment shouldfocus.Education for All: Reaching the Unreached