Trends in National Early Childhood Policies

Article Link: http://exchangepress.com/article/trends-in-national--early-childhood-policies/5021720/

For the past 18 months, the National Representatives of the World Forum Foundation (www.WorldForumFoundation.org) have been collecting some basic information about the early childhood policies of the nations of the world. This effort is being led by the National Representative from India, Swati Popat Vats, President of the Early Childhood Association of India. So far reports have been collected from 37 ­countries with more on the way (see complete list at end of this article). This article will provide an update on some interesting trends identified so far. When the final report is completed, we will notify readers in ExchangeEveryDay: www.ChildCareExchange.com/eed.

Governing Agency

It is extremely rare for early childhood education to be governed by an agency focusing specifically on the pre-primary years. In a majority of the countries, early childhood matters fall under the Ministry of Education. This means that those advocating for early childhood services, both inside and outside of the government, must compete with the much larger constituency advocating for services for children up to 16 and in some cases 20 years of age in public school settings.

In a significant minority of countries, responsibility for preschool children is divided between several agencies. For example, in Bangladesh ‘early childhood care ...