Unequal arguments

In 'Too much, too late' (Special Report, 31 March) Vidhya Alakeson argued for a switch of education funding from later years, and higher education in particular, to preschool. She argues that pre-school education has a greater impact on reducing social inequality than does university education, so students should be made to pay more for their own university education and leave the Government able to put more into early years. She cites the Effective Provision of Pre-school Education (EPPE) project to support her case. However, I believe her logic is flawed. As the EPPE final report (p24) says, 'Children from higher SES (socio-economic status) families made greater progress compared to children from lower SES families.' In other words, while pre-school is a benefit, it does not reduce social class differences. On the other hand, 'Children whose mothers had educational qualifications made more progress in all outcomes,' and 'the Home Learning Environment exerts a significant and independent influence... on progress over the pre-school period.' Together these would suggest that better educated mothers, with better knowledge of what works for children, would be a great benefit for pre-schoolers.