Child Care Impacts School Attendance

"Complain to one who can help you."
–Yugoslav proverb

CHILD CARE IMPACTS SCHOOL ATTENDANCE

The latest UNESCO Policy Brief on Early Childhood. "School Children in Families with Young Children: Educational Opportunities at Risk," which reviews the results of an national work/life study, notes that the availability of affordable early childhood education impacts school attendance.  When care for preschool children is unavailable, older siblings are often kept out of school to care for the preschoolers.  The Policy Brief observes:

"43% of famlies with children 0-5 years old in México. . .relied on older children to care for their younger children some or all the time, as did 47% of respondents in Botswana and 36% of respondents in Vietnam.  Some of this care was provided when routine care fell through, some occurred during after-school hours -- keeping older children from doing homework and leaving them to fall behind or fail in school, while in other cases older children [more often girls] were removed from school all-together to provide care full time.  In every country, poor families were far more likely to have to rely on school-age children and youths to provide care for younger children than non-poor families.

"In the past, policy debates have often pitted the need to invest public resources in the education of 6-14 year olds against the need to invest in ECCE for 0-5 year olds.  Our analysis of the best available data strongly suggests that investing in ECCE for 0-5 year olds should not be seen as competing with meeting the needs of 6-14 year olds, but rather as a complementary way to help meet the needs of older children."

To access this complete Policy Brief, go to:  http://www.unesco.org/education/educprog/ecf/pdf/brief10en.pdf

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