Do you know that more and more children are abandoning school early? If this trend continues, we will have a country full of unemployed, and unemployable, people.

Children whose minds, in their earliest years, are not adequately stimulated pay for these early deficits throughout their lives - and so does society. Such children are far more likely than their more fortunate peers to do poorly in school, to drop out early, to be functionally illiterate, and to be only marginally employable.

Collectively, these children who have been deprived in early life affect labor productivity and national economic prosperity.

Armeane Choksi, The World Bank