Early Education And Care Research Paper

Countries differ widely, however, in their response to these research findings. In many countries, the care of young children is still seen as a private matter, or, from a gender perspective, considered in practice to be the responsibility of women. Young children may be included with other beneficiaries in generalized health, welfare and labor policies, but little help is given to parents either to improve the quality of private care arrangements or to reconcile work with the responsibilities of family life. In other countries, e.g., the USA, public day-care exists, but it is often of a traditional, social welfare nature, focused mainly on the health, hygiene and protection of children from low-income backgrounds. In yet others e.g., the Nordic countries, explicit policies and systems are in place to cater for all young children as a distinct group with their own specific needs and rights. Excellent early care and education services are available, organized by the public authorities on the assumption that ‘professional caregiving and interaction with children can provide an environment that supports the social, emotional and cognitive development of the child,’ (Swedish Ministry of Education 1999).

1. Definition

In its narrowest sense, early education is defined as the initial stage of organized instruction, designed primarily to introduce young children to a school-type environment’ (ISCED 1999). In this definition, it is understood as a center-based (often school-based) program carried out by adequately trained staff, designed to meet the educational needs of children over 3 years of age, and prepare them for school.

For several reasons, the definition is unsatisfactory. With its emphasis on formal education and the age-group 3–6 years, it excludes most programming for young children throughout the world. It is more realistic to define early childhood education and care as any systematic intervention aiming at the development of young children in the age-group from birth to 6 years (the beginning of formal schooling in most countries). Though day-care and preschool programmes immediately come to mind, early childhood programming in this broad sense would also include interventions with strong health and nutrition components, or embrace non-formal programs and play groups with a developmental focus. In this research paper the term ‘early education and care’ will be interpreted in this broader sense.

2. An Overview Of Early Education And Care Programs In The World Regions

2.1 Minority High-Income Countries

In most of the high-income countries of Europe, North America, Asia, and Oceania, early education and development has been a part of government policy for decades. Provision of educational services for children over 3 years of age has predominated, but today, public or private investment in childcare services for the under-3s is increasing rapidly. The increase is generally attributed to the greatly augmented participation of women in the labor market, and, in some countries at least, to the new awareness of the importance of child development and learning.

Pre-school provision for children over 3 years of age is likewise expanding, and from the age of 4 years, ranged in coverage from 55 percent to 98 percent across the OECD countries (OECD, 1999). In a number of countries, e.g., in Belgium and increasingly in France, entitlement to a place in pre-school begins at the age of 30 months. In the year—and frequently in the 2 years—immediately preceding the age of compulsory schooling, provision in excess of 90 percent is common in high-income countries.

Significant differences exist, however, between countries in terms of how early education is conceptualized. A basic difference concerns the separation or integration of care and education. In countries where separation is practised, e.g., Australia, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, UK (until recently), and USA, early education predominates, with higher coverage rates, and better training and renumeration of personnel in the education sector. Preschool is considered to be the initial stage of organized instruction, while early care is relatively underdeveloped. Programs for young children are formal and institutional, organized according to the school model, although subject based teaching is generally not encouraged. Formal quality control—registration, regulation, control of curriculum, centralized staff training and inspection—is usual. France and Belgium also fit into this model, although it should be noted that in these countries public child care is well-developed and preschool begins, in general, around the age of 30 months.

In other countries, e.g., the Nordic countries, Spain, and parts of Italy, a more social and integrated approach to care and early education is adopted. There is greater decentralization of administration and services to regional or municipal levels. Unified policies are generally formulated for children from birth to six years, and there is more mixing of ages within groups than in the education tradition. Personnel are generally trained to a satisfactory level, have adequate career paths and enjoy a professional status. Staff–child ratios are favorable and centers can rely on stable public funding. Emphasis is placed on providing a caring and stimulating environment for children, rather than on preparation for school.

The province of Reggio Emilia in Italy provides a successful illustration of integrated early childhood services. In-service training policies that reach across traditional boundaries, and the creation of centers with integrated age groups, are among the strategies used to bridge education and care. Municipally funded advisory services, professional training, and staff development are made available to all services, whatever their target group or sponsoring body. The pedagogical approach of Reggio Emilia is even more renowned. It seeks to foster the cognitive and social development of young children through a systematic focus on symbolic representation and expression (language, movement, sketching, painting, mathematics, media …). Young children are encouraged to explore their feelings thoughts and environments through different modes of expression natural to them—‘the hundred languages of children’ (Edwards et al. 1993). The Reggio approach emphasizes the autonomy and self-direction of children. Within mixed age groups, children choose, negotiate and participate in long-term pedagogical projects that are often extremely challenging. There is also continuous assessment and documentation of the progress of each child, and well-developed strategies for teacher development and parental participation.

In countries in which early care and education is not seen as a right of young children, compensatory programs for young children may receive significant government subsidies, e.g., ‘Head Start’ in the USA, ‘Sure Start’ in the UK. Research has shown that early childhood education helps, in particular, children from disadvantaged backgrounds to acquire social skills and integrate effectively the early primary school classes (Schweinart et al., 1993, NICHD 1997). Targeted programs are often based on a mixed rationale that may include: the preparation of disadvantaged children for school; social intervention toward ‘at risk’ populations; reduction of unemployment among mothers and, hence, savings in direct welfare payments. Despite the real benefits brought by such programs, the approach may have negative effects, e.g., stigmatizing disadvantaged groups, giving the impression that they and their children are problematic and in need of educational ‘intervention.’ In addition, the compensatory approach may place too great an emphasis on education as an agent of social change. It can be forgotten that poor neighborhoods may need—in addition to education—significant investments in the housing stock, local industry, training and employment policies. In sum, to see early education as a sufficient response to social ills may be to divert attention from other more necessary inputs and from the equity obligations of government.

2.2 Former Soviet Eastern European And Central Asian Republics

In the immediate postwar period, after the Eastern European and Central Asian Republics were absorbed or became part of the Soviet sphere of influence, there was a rapid expansion of full day day care, kindergarten and preschool facilities. Under communist governments, child care was organized as a state funded, supply model. Early childhood education was seen as a means of inculcating the new values of communist society and of forming the ‘socialist personality.’ Enrolment rates in daycare centers and kindergartens soared, reaching, for example in former Czechoslovakia, high levels of coverage. In addition, work leave permissions were given to parents—almost always taken up by women—during the first year or 2 years after the birth of a child. However, since 1990, these countries have gained independence and undergone profound social and economic change.

The transformation has had beneficial effects on children and families, in particular, through the adherence of states both to the European Human Rights Charter and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. However, it may be suggested that from a gender perspective and the funding of early education services, the trend has been less positive. As economies struggle, unemployment has grown. The response of a number of countries has been to extend parental leave, which, in practice, takes women disproportionately out of the labor market. In addition, a marked reduction of state expenditure on early care and education may be noted. During the transition period, early childhood services were devolved to the municipalities or local authorities, and state budgets to the sector drastically reduced. The reduction has hit hardest early childhood services in rural areas, where the former rural cooperatives no longer function. Thus, in the space of 10 years, Bulgaria went from almost full early education coverage of young children in 1988, to 70 percent coverage in 1998.

Moreover, in the former socialist republics, early-years teachers and child care personnel (almost all women) suffer from low status. Wages are so meagre that many leave the profession or are obliged to seek supplementary earnings elsewhere. From a gender perspective, the low status of the profession indicates an underestimation of child-rearing and of the contribution that women make to society through this work. In addition, the dependence of services on increased contributions from families has led to inequality of access, the poorest families being no longer able to afford services. Even when the state has waived fees for disadvantaged categories of children, e.g., for minority or Roma children, cultural expectations about education hinder participation by these groups in preschools, and reinforce weak performance in primary school. The situation has led, in Central Europe and the Balkans, to the segregation of many of these children into special education.

Signs of a reversal of the situation are now apparent in several countries. Despite recurring difficulties, Hungary, for example, is now making special efforts in favour of Roma children through the preschool system. Likewise, Romania has actually been able to expand its early childhood services over recent years, and effective efforts are being made to improve the previously disastrous situation of poor and institutionalized children. In the Czech Republic, after an initial down-sizing, the government is now making an important effort to reorganize services for young children and to improve their quality.

2.3 The Majority World

In the majority world, expansion is greatest for the age group 4–6 years, especially for the children in the year preceding compulsory school (UNESCO 2000). Yet, the growing need for child care should not be underestimated. Extended family help is diminishing in majority world countries, in a situation where many mothers in the rural areas are fully occupied in the rural economy or in meeting the survival needs of older children. In the cities too, in order to provide for their children, mothers are obliged to seek paid work or engage in exchanges of services, while young women, like their counterparts in the industrial world, see a career as part of their social identity. During their periods of work, often irregular, mothers must entrust the daily care and education of young children to other family members, to informal private arrangements or, where they exist, to community, voluntary, or for-profit services.

In several countries, especially in Latin America, governments now receive significant aid from the international organizations and the major development banks to provide early childhood programs (World Bank Human Development Network 1999). These agencies see early childhood programming as an integrated set of activities (including nutrition, immunization, health, care, development activities, preschool education, parent programming, reproductive health, prenatal and postnatal care, community building) spanning the whole age range from conception to the beginning of compulsory school, and including a strong family outreach. When accompanied by equitable economic and social policies, integrated early childhood programming is perceived as a promising means of tackling the poverty cycle (Sen and Brundtland 1999).

2.3.1 Sub-Saharan Africa. Tackling poverty is also part of the early childhood agenda in sub-Saharan Africa, but the challenges are infinitely greater. Due to national debt repayments and an AIDS pandemic, poverty and illness are pervasive in many African countries. Moreover, governance, macroeconomic management, basic infrastructure and public accountability are weak in many countries, and need to be radically improved before any permanent progress can be made in the educational and social fields (Oxfam 1999). Because of the crisis, early childhood intervention must take the form, in many instances, of food supplementation, primary health, and family support programs.

Yet, some governments and the international donors see the field from a broader perspective, that is, in terms of the holistic development of children and of their basic human rights. Much attention is given in the Sahel countries, for example, to investing in reproductive health care for girls and women, and to making it possible for girls to begin education as young as possible. A few countries have also made remarkable progress in the numbers of children being reached through regular preschool programs. South Africa, for example, progressed from an enrolment rate of 10 percent in 1985 to a 28 percent preschool enrolment rate in 1995, while both Senegal and Kenya have now reached an enrolment rate for preschool children of 40 percent. In addition, Kenya has trained almost half its preschool teachers, and established national training centers for preschool staff in several provinces (UNESCO 2000). Major problems remain, however: acute lack of resources and stable funding; inequitable access to services (rural populations generally do not have services); poor quality of services as many service providers have little understanding of child development; and a general absence of trained personnel.

2.3.2 Arab States. Though enrolment figures continue to rise throughout the region, the rate of coverage across countries remains extremely varied, ranging from 1 percent in Yemen, to 8 percent in Egypt, to 63 percent in Morocco, and over 70 percent in Lebanon. As in the rest of the developing world, provision is concentrated in the urban areas, and only a few governments take a leading role in funding and supporting services. The burden of early childhood programming is still borne by the international donors, the NGO sector and local communities. In several countries, including in sub-Saharan Africa, religious leaders have successfully developed early childhood programmes, e.g., in parallel with traditional Koranic classes.

2.3.3 Asia And The Pacific. As the region is extremely diverse (with three-quarters of the world’s children), generalization are difficult to sustain. Enormous contrasts exist with respect to government investment in early childhood policies. The OECD countries of the region—Japan, Korea, Australia, and New Zealand—and Singapore, have policies, coverage figures and system structures comparable to the Western European countries. In contrast, many other countries are still engaged in broadening or improving their primary education systems, leaving it to the voluntary sector—religious institutions, NGOs, and communities—to engage in early childhood programming. In consequence, great inequalities of access continue to exist. Some notable progress in the region can be seen, however, in the enrolment of 4 to 6-year-olds, especially in Malaysia (90 percent), Vietnam (ca. 70 percent) and in China (ca. 50 percent). The other large, high-population country in the region, India, has an enrolment rate of only 17 percent for children aged 3 to 6 years but a number of far-reaching food supplementation and early stimulation programs, such as the Integrated Child Development Services, exist.

2.3.4 Latin America And The Caribbean. During the last decades in Latin America, initial (preschool) education has been the fastest growing sector in education. A number of countries have now reached over 80 percent enrolment rates for children aged 4 years and upward: Barbados, Costa Rica, Chile, Cuba, Jamaica, Mexico, Peru, Uruguay. Another characteristic of the region is its broad developmental approach to early care and education, which contrasts favorably to the didactic approach found in primary education. Much emphasis is placed on nutrition, health, and the developmental needs of children, e.g., in the countrywide programs of Colombia. The approach has proven to be effective, leading to the prevention of stunting, improved health, better physical and mental performance, and enhanced educational achievement. However, as in much of the majority world, children from better-off families are more likely to be enrolled than children from families with few resources or belonging to minority groups. Urban programs still predominate, and entire rural or indigenous populations, e.g., along the Andes, have, in general, extremely weak access. Poverty, too, is a huge barrier to the meaningful participation of children in early care and education programmes in Latin America. Unlike the major countries in Asia, child poverty has actually increased in the continent over the last decade.

4. Conclusion

In summary, the situation of early childhood programming worldwide may be expressed as follows. Research consistently shows that services for families and young children have positive impacts on child development, in particular, on children from disadvantaged backgrounds. Through early intervention, early disability and learning difficulties are more readily diagnosed and prevented. Again, longitudinal research from over 20 countries shows that regular attendance by young children at organized developmental programs, before they begin compulsory schooling, enhances social and cognitive development, and influences positively later educational outcomes, such as reading ability and retention in grade (OECD 1999).

In terms of volume, early childhood services have expanded steadily in almost all countries in the world in the last ten years. Eastern Europe and Central Asia stand out as temporary exceptions, when, with the economic recession in these regions, early childhood services were reduced. In other regions, and in particular, in the industrialized world, early education and care has emerged from the private, domestic sphere. As the foundation stage of life-long education, it has become a legitimate focus of state intervention. The challenge for the coming years will be to unify care and education, and the conceive appropriate policies for the whole age-group from birth to 6 years.

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