Early Care and Education Programs

Early care and education is an important sector for young children because it is where children spend the most time aside from their family worldwide, and it corresponds to the microsystem of Bronfenbrenner’s language. Infant and toddler care requires more adult attention and becomes a women’s economic issue as more and more mothers are employed and working full-time and organized childcare can help with that. Quality of care is divided into structural, which concern basic health and safety standards, and process, which is about the quality of the teacher-child interactions and emotional support, as well as the classroom practices to support learning. Many childcare workers are least paid relative to other occupations worldwide, and although access has increased since the 1990 Education for All Goals placed pre-primary education access among worldwide education goals, nearly half of the world’s young children have no access to pre-primary education. Pre-primary education has consistently positive edicts on children learning and long-term effects on quality of life. Examples are given of successful curricula and activities for learning, including teacher training, the implementation of quality standards, professionalizing the early childhood workforce, and enriched learning in the early primary grades.

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