School segregation Begins in Early Childhood Education

Abstract

There is no doubt about it: children's attendance in early childhood education has a clear influence on later development. Whether we call it early childhood education, preschool education, pre-school education, kindergarten education, early childhood education or, using the International Classification of Education, ISCED 0, there is strong scientific evidence that children who have been in school early have better all-round development and that the benefits of this schooling continue to leave their mark many years later.

In this logic, all countries in the world have redoubled their efforts to increase the rate of pre-school enrolment and the funds invested in this stage have increased significantly in recent years. However, the fact that in many countries this stage is neither compulsory nor free of charge has meant that it has become another element of inequity in education systems.