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THE FOUNDATIONS: EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION AND CARE
The two outstanding gaps or areas of uneven provision
in North America and Western Europe are early childhood
and adult, continuing education. Adult, continuing education
is nowhere universally accessed or accessible and many
decades of sustained effort and innovative practices
will be required before continuing, adult education
for all becomes a reality. Important as shortcomings
in adult and continuing education for evolving lifelong
learning policies, they are not death with further in
this paper. Neither the Dakar remit nor the EFA country
papers has provided data on adult education. For the
further development of inclusive education policies,
it will be essential to include upper secondary, tertiary
and adult education, in other words, a framework of
lifelong learning from birth to old age.
Some countries have achieved virtually universal access
and high levels of public provision for children from
age 2 or 3 upwards. Others, however, fall far short;
not all even accept it as an appropriate target (reflecting
in part traditions of family-based early care and training).
The legally required age of entry to schooling has typically
varied across OECD countries from five to seven. Early
childhood education and care, provided in different
ways, including institutions with many of the characteristics
of schooling, may be available, in some countries, from
ages 0- 2 upwards. 'Early childhood education and care'
in the professional literature extends from infancy
(0) to 6, 7 or even 8 years of age. Thus the term may
refer to the first years of schooling; or to the pre-school
years, or both. Moreover, the concept of 'care' is a
reminder that parental responsibility for the well being
of young children is often shared with different public
authorities - mainly health and education but also welfare
and related services. A holistic concept of early childhood
and care seems to be gaining ground. It refers to developmental
processes, relationships, institutional settings, parenting
and a wide variety of services for infants and young
children from 0 to 6-8 years of age.
Due to the variety of agencies involved, the diversity
of educational provision both formal and informal, and
weaknesses in both data collection and policy and programme
coordination, it can be difficult to form a clear picture
of the provision and its effectiveness. Statistical
data are uneven and in several countries they lack transparency
and coherence. An OECD thematic review is in preparation
to examine trends and discuss issues in early childhood
education and care for future policy consideration by
member countries. It is likely that this will, in time,
lead to not only to more coherent, inclusive policies
but also to improved, more comparable data sources.
Where some countries with a tradition of well-documented
publicly provided early childhood education and care
- France and Belgium for example - can provide detailed
statistics and regular reports, for others, data are
either unavailable or come from such a variety of sources
as to make clear documentation and hence strong policy
initiatives and comparative analysis more difficult
than they should be. This has led early childhood specialists
to advocate national policy frameworks where they do
not already exist and an improved research capability
including a capacity for longitudinal studies and continuing
R&D effort (Sylva and Moss, 1993; Kronemann, 1998).
This is especially true of countries where there is
a large amount of unregulated private provision including
child minding and where, either not at all or until
very recently, policy frameworks were relatively undeveloped.
The scale and diversity of provision for early childhood
education across OECD countries, while still not adequately
documented, for reasons given above, is to some extent
shown in the OECD education data base (OECD/CERI, 1999a,
p.29), see Appendix 1. Universal enrolment generally
starts in the age range 5-6 years. In Belgium, France,
the Netherland, New Zealand and Spain, virtually all
4 year olds are enrolled; for the 2-4 year age range,
Belgium, France, Iceland and New Zealand, the rate is
more than 75% but is less than 25% in Australia, Canada,
Finland, Greece, Ireland, South Korea, Mexico and Switzerland.
Acknowledging the diversity of care facilities including
private providers and data difficulties, however, these
figures need to be treated with caution.
In most countries there either exists or there is now
a definite trend towards more purposive, developmental
and education focused policies for early childhood.
A mixture of public and private providers and sources
of finance is evident; it is, however, increasingly,
subject to regulation and recommended procedures. While
pre-school attendance is not generally required, it
is strongly encouraged. Access tends to be wider or
narrower according to whether it is considered a right
or something in the nature of a special need or a privilege.
There are divergent views and varied purposes, for example
social development, the foundation of lifelong learning,
prevention of delinquency. In the Dutch national report
a link is made between the integrated, continuing process
of education and services for ethnic minorities, from
early childhood to secondary school (Education for
All, The Netherlands, 1999). The report from Norway
makes similar points about the continuity of education
and development grounded in early childhood provision
(and again separately from more contact and better provision
for migrants (Education for All. Norway 1999).
Emphasis is increasingly being given to the development
and strengthening of learning capability as a foundation
for continuing growth from as early as 2 - 3 years of
age. Noted in the Irish EFA report, this is a trend
in many countries. There is a discernible interest in
and impact of developmental psychology and research
findings concerning cognitive growth, social experience
and health. Perhaps no less important are changes in
labour market participation whereby women with young
children are re-entering the work force. A third consideration
is the need to equalize opportunities and to ensure
early learning opportunities for children who are actually
or potentially disadvantaged and liable to later educational
retardation. These and other benefits perceived by member
countries have been reviewed in a chapter of OECD's
Education Policy Analysis (OECD/CERI, 1999a) and in
an Education Committee document proposing a thematic
review of early childhood education and care policy.
Ireland, with a history of low participation rates in
pre-school education and care, is one of the countries
which, during the nineties have prepared policy documents,
initiated legislation or declared an intention to expand
and improve provision for early childhood education
and care. A representative national forum was held in
1998 and, drawing on the experience of other countries
with advanced systems and reviewing its own requirements,
it recommended a comprehensive, co-ordinated, inclusive
system through a partnership between public and private
authorities. The potential for learning of very young
children, the economic and social benefits of investment,
the forestalling of later learning problems, the opportunity
to advance parent education, and the need for a good
quality of child care when both parents are working
were the main arguments advanced for the new initiative.
The case made by the Forum and by other bodies has been
accepted by the Irish government which is now 'committed
to developing a national policy framework for early
childhood education and to the provision of a specific
budget for pre-school education' (Education for All,
Ireland, 1999 ) and is preparing a White Paper.
While the approach is comprehensive, it is characteristic
of current climates of opinion that there is to be a
particular focus on two target groups: socio-economic
disadvantage and special education needs. This approach
combines the idea of a right with that of targeting.
It must be noted, in interpreting statistics and reports
on early childhood education and care, that there is
great variety in types of pre-school provision. In the
UK, for example, these include publicly maintained nursery
schools and nursery classes which are integral parts
of primary schools, mostly part-time and taking children
aged three and four; reception classes in primary schools,
mostly full-time, to which children are admitted before
the age of five; day nurseries both public and private
(often run as a business) which look after the under
fives for the length of the adult working day; playgroups
for children between two and a half and five and mostly
run on a self-help basis by parents and community groups;
and childminders, who look after the under fives (and
also older children) outside school hours in domestic
premises (Sylva and Moss, 1993). Similar diversity is
noted in EFA national reports from the Netherlands and
Portugal.
Data sources on countries with this variety of provision
are often insufficient for firm conclusions to be drawn
about participation and quality of provision. Often,
too, the regulatory framework is variable, with responsibility
divided among a number of different private agencies,
groups and individuals and several public authorities
(health, social affairs, employment, education). Some
countries have consolidated services for all children
(e.g. Finland, Ministry of Social Welfare; Spain and
Sweden, Ministry of Education). Others have well developed
procedures for co-ordination of public-private partnerships
(e.g. Denmark and the Netherlands). Overall, however,
the field of early childhood education and care is quite
variable in both quantity and quality of provision.
Realisation of this is resulting in policy interest
in policy frameworks, finance, partnerships, educational
content and in evaluations of what is actually available.
Several major policy issues have emerged from the moves
to extend and diversify provision of early childhood
education and care, seek new avenues for funding and
ensure a fair distribution of opportunities for access
to services and to benefit from them. They include:
1. Inclusiveness which in several countries
means how best to raise participation to near universal
levels;
2. Equitable access and participation to overcome
socio-economic disadvantage and equalise cultural
development opportunities, in face of the tendency
for educational practice to reproduce poverty rather
than counterbalance it;
3. Attention to individuals and groups with special
needs including immigrants and ethnic minorities,
young childrensuffering multiple disadvantage and
those with learning difficulties;
4. Partnerships in the definition of need,
in provision and in meeting costs;
5. Quality of learning, with a growing interest
in ways to ensure that all forms of early childhood
care have discernible educational values and functions;
6. Policy coherence and co-ordination of services
and provision, in face of the responsibilities
which have historically been divided among different
ministries and public authorities;
7. Knowledge base, including both improved
statistics on forms of supply, access to and take
up of provision, standards of educational performance
and cost effectiveness, together with more research
into conditions affecting early development and its
benefits for subsequent learning in school.
IV STRENGTHENING PRIMARY AND
SECONDARY SCHOOLING AND VOCATIONAL EDUCATION
As noted above, OECD countries have long-established
and well-functioning systems of universal basic education.
The issue is not, as in some other parts of the world,
ensuring an effective, functioning legal, economic and
social basis for universal access and participation,
or of providing an organised, efficient system of universal,
continuous schooling, or even adequate levels of resourcing
and equipping schools (although some critics would dispute
this last point). Rather, it is how best to educate
the whole age group, spending many years in school,
to an acceptable standard across a broad array of subjects
and activities, and to achieve such levels of interest
and motivation as to ensure a continuing, lifelong commitment
to learning.
Primary schooling was made free and attendance compulsory
in many OECD countries in the latter part of the nineteenth
century and, in the first third of the twentieth century
it became the norm for all children to attend school
full time with the age level gradually increasing, resulting
in a greater differentiation between primary and lower
secondary, then upper secondary schooling (Connell,
1980). It would appear that, by the beginning of the
1990s, the OECD region had achieved universal primary,
secondary and initial vocational education. Valid as
a generalisation, this masks numerous variations, distinctive
features, difficulties and shortcomings which have now
become the targets for present and future action. In
short, basic supply problems having been overcome, it
has become possible to concentrate policy initiatives
and resources - beyond those needed to maintain an adequate
base - on specific weak points in the teaching- learning
process, special needs and key qualitative priorities.
From both member country and OECD Secretariat sources,
a picture can be drawn of trends which have characterised
basic education in OECD countries in the nineties, with
due allowance for national and regional variations.
1.
There have been sustained efforts to extend to all
young people some form of full secondary education,
up to the age of sixteen, seventeen or eighteen (sometimes
beyond) (OECD/CERI, 1998a). Participation data for
both primary and secondary education are given in
Appendix 2.
2. Where students are not intending to continue
from secondary into tertiary education (increasingly,
a minority of the age group), they are expected to
complete vocational training either within upper secondary
schools or in a separate vocational sector. Students
are actively discouraged from leaving the education-
training system without either an academic qualification,
enabling entry to tertiary level studies or a vocational
qualification recognised in the labour market. The
pathways open to - and needed for - the 14-24 age
group have been described and analysed in the first
two of a new series of multi-national thematic reviews
respectively on tertiary education and the transition
from school to work (OECD, 1998b; OECD, in press);
3. Where students have performed poorly at
school, failing to reach an adequate academic or vocational
standard, special job-oriented/ preparatory programmes
have been widely introduced, but with varying degrees
of success. There continues to be a serious problem
in many countries of inadequate preparation, either
academic or vocational, affecting perhaps 15% - 20%
of the age group (OECD/CERI, 1998c). A high standard
of basic education is seen as a high priority - in
an official UK document it was given first place (Department
for Education and Employment, 1997). Education for
employment was accorded second priority, with lifelong
learning taking third place.
4. Countries in the OECD region have moved
to strengthen measures of student performance and
progression, and to increase cross-country comparisons.
These include participation in the International Education
Achievement (IEA) programme, the Third International
Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) and, in the
recently launched OECD/PISA study referred to above.
Perhaps the most far reaching of the changes aimed
at setting and monitoring national standards of basic
education in a national context is the United Kingdom
but in most countries there is a trend towards more
detailed monitoring, reporting and evaluating student
progress. The French Direction de l'Evaluation et
de la Prospective is the source of numerous, regular
reports on the functioning of the national education
system, from many perspectives; as an illustration,
in 1998 a special number of Education et Formation
was devoted to rural education and, in 1997 number
5 of Geographie de l'Ecole provided an overview of
the principal regional and academic characteristics
of the education system in France. Another example
of this trend in OECD countries to monitor, compare
and publicly report on the functioning of their education
systems is the Flemish publication of indicators in
an international perspective (Education Department
of the Ministry of the Flemish Community, 1998).
5. In addition to monitoring and comparing,
countries are putting a greater emphasis on the quality
of teaching and learning and standards of student
performance. One major reason for this is the rapidity
of technological and structural changes indicating
that higher levels of competence and expertise are
needed in a rapidly changing labour market. Another
is the impact of globalisation: 'improved competitiveness'
has become the hallmark in an open system of international
production, trade and distribution of goods and services.
The standards issue came to the fore in the late 1980s,
featuring in the 1989 five yearly meeting of the OECD
Education Ministers (OECD, 1992) and has recurred
throughout the 90s. How countries conceived, monitored,
reported on, evaluated and sought to improve standards
was the subject of a set of national reports published
in the middle of the decade (OECD/CERI, 1995). The
PISA programme, referred to above, is one of many
other demonstrations of policy concern over the nature
and level of student attainments.
6. Changes in curriculum, pedagogy and student
assessment have been a continuing theme in OECD countries
at least for the period of the curriculum project
movement initiated in the later 50s in the United
States initially in mathematics and science. Although
the model of specially funded project teams often
working independently of or loosely coupled to ministries
of education declined in the 80s, a wide array of
initiatives has continued in the 90s. These range
from the highly convergent national frameworks of
basic or core subjects with prescriptive curriculum
content, pedagogical guidance and standardised attainment
levels as in the UK, to projects aimed at fostering
variety and local teacher initiatives (Black and Atkin,
1996; OECD/CERI, 1993; OECD/CERI, 1994b). However,
perhaps the major changes in curriculum and pedagogy
have occurred in the train of the rapid advances in
communication and information technology, with all
countries moving towards computer literacy. The impact
of the new technologies on schooling has given rise
to many issues, including their place in the curriculum
(permeating many subjects, or commanding separate
curriculum space or, most often, a mix of these two;
difficulties of resourcing; developing software of
appropriate quality; and the potential use of the
Internet - and more broadly of multi-media - in facilitating
less formal schooling and reinforcing lifelong learning
(OECD, 1999, ch.3).
7. Growing concerns over evidence of widespread
social problems: crime, homelessness, substance abuse,
rejection of legitimate authority, and threats to
social cohesion have re-ignited interest in the domains
of social, civic, political and health education.
New programmes and curriculum requirements in these
areas have been introduced, alongside the competencies
defined for employment. Thus there are, in parallel,
two fundamental curriculum orientations that signal
the responsiveness of education to economic, social
and cultural change: employment-related competency;
personal-social and civic education. The importance
countries attached to values and social education
as part of a broad-based core curriculum was reported
in an OECD/CERI survey at the end of the 80s (Skilbeck,
1991) and signalled again in an international curriculum
conference early in the nineties (OECD, 1994b).
8. While public sector control, administration
and direction of education remain dominant in all
OECD countries, in several there is a growing emphasis
on the sharing of responsibilities and the roles to
be performed by different stakeholders: parents, employers,
community bodies, religious organisations and others.
In some countries (Australia, Ireland, Netherlands,
UK, for example) there has long existed a partnership
between the state and churches in the provision and
administration of education. What is of growing importance
everywhere is the tendency, even in almost wholly
state-run systems, for responsibility to be devolved
from large, all-powerful central ministries, to regions,
individual school governing bodies, statutory authorities
and community groups. A policy framework of 'steering
at a distance', well developed for example in Scandinavian
countries and in the Netherlands, ensures that a strong
set of national policies operates, including monitoring
and evaluating performance, in combination with enhanced
local, regional and community decision-making.
9. In the matter of financing and resourcing,
several trends corresponding to the devolution movement
are noteworthy: budget control with increasing emphasis
on outcomes and performance; strengthened capacity
for financial management, reporting and accountability;
quest for new private sources and shared funding;
more scope for local financial control and management.
Although there is a widespread sense of budget constraint,
between 1990 and 1995, expenditure on education generally
grew faster than national wealth (OECD/CERI, 1998a,
pp.69 - 72).
10. Progress towards achieving the goal of
a high quality of education and training for all depends
on a large number of factors, not least the quality
of the educational environment and the resources for
teaching and learning. OECD countries have co-operated
through the OECD Program on Educational Buildings
in the data gathering and studies on ways to improve
the quality and sustainability of educational buildings.
There are 3 main purposes: to contribute to educational
quality; to ensure efficient and effective use of
resources; and to give early warning of the implications
for educational buildings of educational and broader
changes. A useful practical service is the documentation
of exemplary practice in both new and refurbished
buildings (OECD/CERI, 1996b). Countries having largely
met the quantitative targets for school buildings
and essential equipment before the beginning of the
90s, have increasingly focused on the educational
and aesthetic quality of new buildings and on refurbishing
existing ones to meet overall changes in curriculum
and pedagogy and particularly, now, to respond to
the new communication and information technologies.
Budget constraints have reinforced moves to produce
built environments with multiple purposes and joint
uses - cultural activities, sports, recreation, library
facilities, summer residential schools, evening classes
and so on.
11. Sustained high growth rates might have
been expected to ease pressure on educational resourcing.
In one, (Ireland), measurable increases in resources
allocated to education are reported. Reduced pupil-teacher
ratios, the strengthening of services, capital works,
and so forth are in the pipeline. But growth alone
is not sufficient and many countries report no improvements
in educational resourcing. Other public sector demands,
continuing high levels of unemployment, ageing populations
and rising costs (for example of medical treatment)
have combined with the preferred policies of fiscal
restraint and balanced budgets, to keep education
budgets severely constrained in most countries (OECD,
1998b). One of the consequences of budget constraint
is that there has been little if any improvement,
and as noted in the German EFA report, actual declines,
in the percentage of GDP allocated to education and
for poorer countries.
12. Policy makers, administrators and managers
have been under continuing pressure throughout the
nineties to improve financial management - for which
advances in information technology have been of considerable
value, to reduce unit costs, and to bring about a
closer relationship between expenditure and outcomes.
Disclosure and reporting procedures have improved,
with some emphasis on greater public awareness of
education costs - long established features of traditionally
decentralised - local control systems (notably in
the USA) but of much more recent origin in highly
centralised systems. Four important principles have
been enunciated. First, that there should be transparency;
second that there is public accountability; third,
that there is an obligation to direct public funds
to the ends and purposes of declared public policy;
and fourth, that there should be integrity and efficiency
in the use of funds.
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