Greater investment in early childhood education (ECE) can be a springboard to success. Expanding ECE in Canada would increase female labour market participation, improve child outcomes (especially for disadvantaged children), and reduce Canada’s income inequality.
Access to ECE helps cultivate a healthy society. Yet Canada spends less on ECE than other countries. Our educational enrolment rate for children aged 2-4 year is 58 per cent, compared to the average of close to 70 per cent in comparable advanced nations. Bringing Canada’s enrolment rate for children aged 2 to 4 up to the average of other nations would put 134,000 more children in ECE programs.
In this free webinar, Craig Alexander will present the findings of Conference Board research on the impact of ECE. The full analysis is published in the Conference Board report, Ready for Life: A Socio-Economic Analysis of Early Childhood Education and Care. Craig will also address the most important dimensions for policy-makers to discuss in order to maximize the benefits of ECE – enrolment rates and the duration that children receive ECE programming.
The bottom line is that investments in play-based high-quality ECE can help children from disadvantaged backgrounds to succeed.
It can also help improve income for low income families and help support women in the labour market. And, it would remove a key source of inequality.