- Reduce violence
- Enhance social stability
- Improve the quality of human capital
- Embrace the opportunities in modern, knowledge-based
economies - Be successful in the continuing experiments in civilization
- Sustain the biosphere for future populations.
Assuring universal access to high-quality ECD programs is a basic
step toward reducing poverty, promoting equity, and building hu-
man capital—determinants of economic growth and civic societies.
The importance of society’s human capital has long been recognized
by Nobel laureates in economics (Tinbergen, Schultz, Fogel, Sen).
More recently, the specific value of investing in early child devel-
opment has been noted by leading economists. Van der Gaag (2002)
brings together all the points about human development to conclude
that early child development affects education, health, social capital,
and equity and fosters a “level playing field” among all individuals—
a key aspect of stable societies and economic growth.
During our time in human history, the exponential growth in
knowledge and advanced technologies cannot be sustained unless
societies build competent, equitable, high-quality populations and
stable, prosperous communities. Failing to make the necessary invest-
ments to ensure the quality, competence, and equity of future popu-
lations could lead to chaos and grim prospects for the continuing ex-
periments in civilization.
Fortunately, the return on investing in early child development is
high. Heckman (2000), another Nobel laureate in economics, has re-
cently concluded:
The return for every dollar invested in preschool is much greater for
the individual and society than is an investment in school-based pro-
grams. The return on investments in ECD programs is at least 8:1,
compared with the return on investment in education in general, at
3:1. [This calculation does not include the effects of ECD programs on
physical and mental health in adult life.]80 J. Fraser Mustard