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Quality education and care for young children leads to better lives
Education and care services for young children can improve their subsequent performance at school and their life chances – but only if they are of high quality. This is a key message from a new report by independent experts for the European Commission.
Drafted by NESSE, the network of experts in social sciences of education and training, the report summarises key findings from international research on early childhood education and care and highlights their implications for policy development and implementation.
Researchers point out that investing in quality early childhood education and care is crucial since it is at this stage that the foundations are laid for subsequent learning and achievements. Also, they provide evidence that quality education and care services contribute to breaking the cycle of disadvantage.
Poor quality services may do more harm than good, the authors say, especially to children from poorer backgrounds. They also show that private for-profit services are very variable but tend to offer the lowest quality services in all countries where they have been investigated.
The experts warn that, however good, early childhood education and care services alone are not sufficient to redress the effects of child poverty and disadvantage and to change life chances. Rather, governments should invest in a whole spectrum of policies that affect young children's lives.
To know more
- The report: "Early Childhood Education and Care: lessons from research for policy makers" (Full text in EN, with executive summary in EN, FR, DE)
- NESSE: All reports
- The 2009 Eurydice Report "Early Childhood and Care in Europe: Tackling Social and Cultural Inequalities"
