Excerpts from the report:
Education International strongly believes that early childhood education is of great value to all children and should be equally available and accessible to all. Strengthening knowledge on the various approaches and practices on ECE adopted in different countries can contribute towards the improvement of policy on early childhood education through the identification of successes and challenges encountered in different contexts.
This study was conducted by the Education International Early Childhood Education (ECE) Task Force and gathered and analysed cross-national data on early childhood education policies, systems, programmes and activities from 17 countries, namely: Brazil, Canada, Denmark, The Gambia, Ghana, Hungary, Mexico, Nepal, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Portugal, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Togo, the United States and Venezuela.
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The overall goal of the study was to investigate early childhood education policies, programmes and activities across the globe, with a view to making this information available to EI member organisations to facilitate evidence-based policy-making and information exchange.
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The specific objectives of the study were:
- To identify key ECE policy issues in each of the participating countries, with a view to indentifying common regional and international trends and developments, as well as the diversity and uniqueness of the various systems;
- To identify the main providers and funders of ECE services in the target countries;
- To map out the level of access to ECE services and union views on the quality of these services;
- To map out the structure of the ECE workforce in the participating countries, their professional development and conditions of service; and,
- To collect examples of good practice and case studies to facilitate information exchange among EI member organisations and other stakeholders.