Those of us who work in the early childhood sector know the benefits of good-quality early education. It may have taken time for governments across the world to recognise these benefits, but once they did, their interest and investment have been considerable.
Indeed, the early childhood education sector’s rapid and continued growth in England has been in contrast to cuts in other services, and incomes, that have disproportionately affected economically disadvantaged families with young children.
In this evolving early years policy context, there is also a sense in which children’s educational outcomes at the age of five years are now becoming conflated with notions of well-being, and may appear to be predicated on their achieving stage-specific educational outcomes. It is within this context that the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) conducted its International Early Learning and Well-Being Study (IELS).
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