OECD Report: Quality ECEC is Key to Reducing Lifelong Inequality and Boosting Prosperity
SDG 4: Quality Education | SDG 10: Reduced Inequalities
Ministry of Education
The OECD report “Quality Early Childhood Education: The Key to Prosperity and Well-Being” is a background document for the 2025 International Summit on the Teaching Profession (ISTP). It frames early childhood education and care (ECEC) as a foundational investment for individual well-being, societal prosperity, and equity.
Key Findings on ECEC and Inequality:
Predicting Adult Outcomes: The trajectory of a child’s development in the first few years is a powerful predictor of their future success in education, work, and well-being.
The Development Gap: By the age of five, socio-economically disadvantaged children are, on average, 12 months behind their advantaged peers in core skills, including emergent literacy and pro-social behaviour. This gap is substantial and unlikely to close without intervention.
Investment Challenge: On average, OECD governments spent a low 0.8% of their GDP on ECEC in 2021, despite its potential to reduce inequalities.
Workforce and Policy Imperatives:
Workforce Crisis: The ECEC sector faces high staff turnover driven by low wages, inadequate benefits, and poor working conditions. Alarmingly, only 20% of staff felt highly confident in supporting the development of children from disadvantaged backgrounds.
Policy Pillars for Quality: Attracting and retaining a quality ECEC workforce requires action across three pivotal areas: Skills Development (initial training and ongoing professional learning), Working Conditions (improving salaries and contract status), and Leadership and Management.
Access Roadmap: Reducing inequalities requires combining universal access for all children with targeted support (e.g., specialized staff and subsidies) for the most vulnerable groups.
Policy Relevance
The report provides a critical benchmark for India’s National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, which aims to strengthen ECEC. The quantifiable findings on the strong link between staff stress, lack of career progression, and ECEC quality mandate urgent reforms to India’s Anganwadi and foundational education workforce. Policy implementation must prioritize investment in competitive compensation and robust training to ensure equitable deployment of well-equipped staff, thereby securing the long-term cognitive and social benefits of early childhood development across the nation. Some other actionable insights are: prioritize under-3 access (scale ICDS), regulate ratios/qualifications (bachelor’s encouraged), boost public spend (benchmark 1%+ GDP), integrate play/curricula, train workers on diversity/inclusion, subsidize low-income/rural, link ECEC-health-nutrition for equity.
Follow the full report here: Quality Early Childhood Education: The Key to Prosperity and Well-Being