Quality of the early years provisions: an European perspective

The flagship initiative ‘Youth on the Move’, which is part of the European Union’s Europe 2020 Strategy, emphasizes the importance of creativity and innovation for Europe’s competitiveness and preservation of current standards of living. In this context, all young people must have the opportunity to develop their talents to the fullest possible extent. Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) is attributed a key role in reaching this goal. And indeed, the potential benefits of ECEC are manifold and they concern personal development, physical and mental wellbeing, educational success and equity, social integration, employability, and skills for life-long learning. This is good news for everyone working in ECEC, but, be aware, there are also many challenges. Can we indeed meet the high expectations? At the European Council in Barcelona in 2002, member states agreed to provide full-day care to support parents in work to at least 90% of children between three and compulsory school age by 2010. In 2009, the Ministers of Education set a new benchmark for early education: at least 95% of children between age 4 and compulsory school age across Europe should be able to participate in ECEC by 2020. Clear policies have been defined for the expansion of ECEC, but the quality of ECEC has received remarkably little attention. Yet, the evidence indicates that quality is crucial to the benefits of ECEC. To quote Kathy Sylva of Oxford University: “Low quality may do more harm than good”. So, here is another urgent question: Is the current quality of ECEC good enough? Can we improve quality? Preparing children for the challenges of European citizenship for 21 century is a major task for ECEC. These challenges include language and reading skills, mathematical literacy and science literacy (OECD, 2010), but should go beyond mere academic proficiency and include also social competence, creativity, democratic citizenship and moral values, calling for a holistic approach to ECEC. Whereas most of us would agree with the holistic approach to ECEC, the question is: can we indeed reconcile all these interests and serve all these goals equally well, and still provide ECEC that is feasible and affordable and, most importantly, a very pleasant experience for children? There are new challenges for ECEC, arising from the increasing cultural and linguistic diversity in current societies. Many children from immigrant families are second language learners of the majority language and may need extra support. Do we deal adequately with multilingualism? Moreover, different cultural beliefs and values on important developmental and educational goals prevail. Therefore, an urgent question is to what extent current ECEC in Europe with its typical playbased and child-centered practices can accommodate the beliefs and expectations of nonmainstream cultural communities. This question is also important in view of the inclusiveness of ECEC, because, as I will review later, there may still exist cultural thresholds that limit access to and use of ECEC which have to do with divergent cultural views.