Early Childhood Education Throughout The World

In some countries, systematic early childhood education has been in existence for thousands of years, while in others, the idea of educating preschool-aged children is relatively new. ¹ In some countries, early childhood programmes serve children 3 to 6 years old, and in others, they serve a much narrower age-range (e.g. only 5 year olds). In some countries, early childhood education is available for nearly all preschool-aged children, while in others, it is available to very few or none at all. Some countries' early childhood education programmes have developed because of a belief that early education is important, while other countries' programmes have developed to provide care (and perhaps also education) for children whose parents participate in the labour force.