The report is the background paper for the fourth OECD International Summit on the Teaching Profession held in Wellington, New Zealand March 28-29, 2014. The Summit's theme is excellence, equity and inclusiveness - high quality teaching for all. For more information on the conference visit the ISTP website.
Excerpt from pg 69:
The benefits of investing in early childhood education and care are seen in the performance of 15-year-olds in PISA. Students who had attended pre-primary education for more than one year outperformed the rest; in many countries, the difference is equivalent to more than one school year, even when taking into account the students' socio-economic background. There is, however, considerable cross-country variation on the impact, which may be explained by the quality of the education provided. Insufficient investment in early childhood education and care can lead to childcare shortages, low-quality education, unequal access, and the segregation of children according to their family income - which, in turn, leads to inequities in schooling outcomes later (OECD, 2006).
In recent years, several OECD countries - including Australia, Austria, Poland and Spain - have made significant efforts to increase access to early childhood education and care by adding to the number of years of compulsory schooling years or increasing the number of places available for children. However, education for 0-6 year-olds is underfunded in OECD countries, and is usually provided by private - and often unregulated - institutions or individuals (OECD, 2006). Some countries specifically target disadvantaged families for early childhood education programmes. There are risks to this approach however: targeted programmes segregate, may stigmatise and may fail to provide early childhood
education and care for many of the children eligible or for a large group of more moderate-income families that are also unable to afford the cost of private pre-school education (OECD, 2006).
Reference: OECD (2006). Starting Strong II: Early Childhood Education and Care. Paris: OECD Publishing.