In this blog for the Global Education Monitoring Report, Young Lives education researcher Jack Rossiter describes recent ECD approaches in Ethiopia and highlights that while the evidence points to the potential of investing in early childhood, when it comes to delivering on that potential in a low-resource setting, some routes can result in ‘bad reception years’ being tagged onto an already stretched primary education cycle. He stresses Ethiopia’s remarkable progress in increasing access and enrolment in ECCE and investigates the challenge faced in delivering the potential of well-planned, quality programmes to scale.