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Pupils during a lesson. [File, Standard]
By the time two children walk into a pre-primary school classroom for the first time, life may already have set them on very different paths. One may arrive healthy, well-nourished, confident and curious. They may have spent their first three years being spoken to, played with, comforted and encouraged to explore. They may have grown up in a safe home, received essential healthcare and had a caregiver with the time and support to respond to their needs.
Another child may arrive carrying a very different story. Perhaps they have experienced poor nutrition, repeated illness, inadequate stimulation or an unsafe home environment. Perhaps their caregiver has been struggling to put food on the table, leaving little time or capacity for the nurturing interactions that young children need.
These two children may be the same age. They may sit in the same classroom. They may wear the same uniform and experience the same teacher, but they do not begin from the same starting line. Therein lies one of the most important development challenges facing County Governments today: What they do in the first three years of a child's life to ensure that where a child is born does not determine how far that child can go.
