Country study

Providing Quality Early Childhood Education and Care

For most children, early childhood education and care (ECEC) provides the first experience of life in a group away from their families. This experience plays a crucial role in children’s learning, development and well-being. The benefits of high-quality ECEC are not restricted to children’s first years of life. However, little is known about this first experience. What do children learn and do in ECEC settings? With which staff do children interact at their centers? Do all children face the same opportunities to enroll in high-quality settings?


Quality Early Childhood Education and Care for Children Under Age 3

The experience of children under age three with early childhood education and care (ECEC) is crucial for their learning, development and well-being and for parents’ return to work. Despite increasing recognition of the importance of ECEC for the youngest children, little is known about this sector. The OECD Starting Strong Teaching and Learning International Survey  (TALIS Starting Strong) is the first international survey that focuses on the ECEC workforce.


Building a High-Quality Early Childhood Education and Care Workforce

The work of early childhood education and care (ECEC) professionals is the major driver of the quality of an ECEC system. As evidence accumulates on the strong benefits of investing in early education, countries need effective policies to attract, maintain and retain a highly skilled workforce in the sector.


Bulgaria Grows with It's Children: Building Professional Competences of the Early Childhood Workforce

The goal of the research ‘Bulgaria grows with its children: Building professional competences for early childhood development’ (hereinafter referred to as ‘research on the early years workforce’ and ‘the research’) is to outline the main directions for improvement of the professionalization of the early years workforce on the basis of data – quantitative and qualitative – as well as to formulate recommendations for policy development in this area.

This summary shares the main results and recommendations derived from this research.


The stability of the early years workforce in England: An examination of national, regional and organizational barriers

The stability of the early years workforce in England

This report sheds a light on some of these disparities for the early years workforce. It includes a review of the relevant literature; an analysis of quantitative data covering a large representative sample of workers in England; and 40 interviews with early years practitioners, setting managers and local policy-makers. The most common barriers identified in all three strands of research were pay, work demands, certain demographic characteristics, training and the organisational climate of the early years provider. 


Teachers Perception on Early Childhood Education in Medak, India

Teachers Perception on Early Childhood Education in Medak, India

This presentation outlines the Medak Early Childhood Education Initiative and it presents the results of a study that aimed at:  understanding the awareness of Caregivers (AWWs) understanding on importance of ECE; understanding their perception towards ECE in the context of Child Development; planning interventions to improve understanding of AWWs about ECE by the efforts of the Foundation and the ICDS department. The implications for training are presented and discussed.


The early years workforce in England

The early years workforce in England from the Education Policy Institute (EPI) compares conditions and characteristics of childcare workers with those in occupations that are often regarded as career alternatives.

The report highlights several key findings:


Supporting the Early Childhood Workforce at Scale: Community Health Workers and the Expansion of First 1000 Days Services in South Africa

Supporting the Early Childhood Workforce at Scale Community Health Workers and the Expansion of First 1000 Days Services in South Africa
The National Integrated Early Childhood Development Policy (NIECDP) (2015) is an important step in South Africa’s shift from a health system focused on curative, disease-based services to one based on prevention and health promotion. The NIECDP identifies a comprehensive vision of early childhood development (ECD) services to be delivered by 2030, seeking to strengthen and integrate these services across all government departments.

Vision for Specialised Child Protection Services in the Republic of Moldova

Vision for Specialised Child Protection Services in the Republic of Moldova

The Vision for Specialised Child Protection Services in the Republic of Moldova lays out a common vision on the system of child protection services and includes a variety of specialized services needed in order to form an integrated and coherent system to meet the complex needs of children victims and witnesses of child abuse and neglect.


Transforming the Financing of Early Care and Education

Transforming the Financing of Early Care and Education
Transforming the Financing of Early Care and Education outlines a framework for a funding strategy that will provide reliable, accessible high-quality early care and education for young children from birth to kindergarten entry, including a highly qualified and adequately compensated workforce that is consistent with the vision outlined in the 2015 report, Transforming the Workforce for Children Birth Through Age 8: A Unifying Foundation. The recommendations of this report are based on essential features of child development and early learning, and on principles for high-quality professional practice at the levels of individual practitioners, practice environments, leadership, systems, policies, and resource allocation.