The Importance of Early Childhood Education Early Childhood Education (ECE) (sometimes called early childhood care and

educa tion ECCE) refers to the education that children obtain during early stages of the ir childhood. Early childhood is a crucial time period for the development of th e mental functions of children. This development, including the emergence of the abilities and skills in areas such as language, motor skills, psychosocial cogn itive and learning, is now known to be greatly influenced by exogenous factors, including the nature of the educational environment to which the child is expose d during the first 6 to 8 years of life (Bowman, Donovan and Burns, 2001). It has been shown that ECE can be a major input into a child's formal education. A number of studies link ECE to increases in school readiness for primary schoo l, and it has been shown that school readiness is an important predictor of earl y school achievement (Forget-Dubois et al 2007). One review of 36 studies of ECE effectiveness in small-scale demonstration and large-scale public programs each s tudy comparing participants with a control group of non-participants finds "overwh elming evidence that ECCE can produce sizable improvements in school success." ( Barnett 1995, pg. 40) Further, early gains in school readiness due to early childhood education have b een shown to have enormous positive economic and social impacts lasting well int o adulthood, from higher educational attainment and less chance of involvement i n criminal activity, to higher status employment and higher earnings (Schweinhar t 2007; Sparling, Ramey and Ramey 2007). James Heckman, Nobel laureate in economics from the University of Chicago, revie wed the literature and found that the long-term, economic return on investment i n high-quality ECE programs is more than 8 to 1 (Heckman 2000). Summarizing the few longitudinal studies and many short-term studies of ECE interventions, Heck man argues the important lesson to take away from successful early childhood int erventions is that social skills and motivation are a young child's most easily life-altered attributes, even more so than IQ. Further, social skills and motiv ation have large impacts on school performance. In his view, a student with stro ng social skills and motivation tends to acquire a higher level of education. Th en, with all three attributes (social skills, motivation and education), the ind ividual becomes highly valuable in the work place. Heckman concludes, "We cannot afford to postpone investing in children until the y become adults, nor can we wait until they reach school age a time when it may be too late to intervene. Learning is a dynamic process and is most effective when it begins at a young age and continues through to adulthood." (Heckman 2000, pg . 50)

The Components of Good Early Childhood Education While parental and family care is an important component of ECE development, we are primarily concerned with the educational component since it is here that pol icy (and society) is able to play the most proactive role. So what is known in t he literature about creating a good ECE program? A good quality ECE program shou ld be a multi-dimensional educational program with a focus on the holistic devel opment of children in the early stages of their childhood. One of ECE's goals is to enable children to be "more ready" for primary school education. A good ECE program should have the following characteristics: it should be built around a good learning environment with an effective, well-th ought out curriculum; it should begin at an appropriate starting age; it should be provided in a physical space that is safe and one that has certain specialized facilities;

it should be given by professional care givers, attentive to the individualized needs and progress of the child, and, if possible, it should include the involvement of parents. "While no single curriculum or pedagogical approach can be identified as best, c hildren who attend well-planned, high-quality ECE programs in which the curricul um aims are specified and integrated across domains tend to learn more and are b etter prepared to master the complex demands of formal schooling." (Bowman, Dono van and Burns 2001, p. 7-8) Click to view a more extensive Review of the Early Childhood Education Literatur e Early Childhood Education in China While there is consensus internationally ECE will place children at a better start for primary education and give them a better chance for achievements later in l ife in China the importance of ECE has not caught the full attention of society. T his lack of awareness and the uncertainty of parents of the influence of ECE on the school readiness of their children lead many parents to place ECE far from t he top of the education priority list. In fact, policy makers have relegated ECE to a much lower position. While national legislation and municipal policy in so me urban areas (e.g. Shanghai) have been passed in recent years to try to regula te teacher training and qualifications and to provide guidelines for high qualit y ECE classroom teaching (Li 2006), public policy has not been backed with publi c funding. The preschool empirical evidence on the extent to which these guideli nes have been put into practice remains to be seen. The situation appears far worse in rural China. There is a big disparity in ECE between urban cities and rural areas. In urban areas approximately 95% of young children attend a pre-school prior to starting primary school (Educational Stati stics Yearbook of China). In rural areas, participation in ECE is only 50% (Sohu News 2007). In poor areas of rural China, the participation rates are much, muc h lower, perhaps no more than 20 to 25 percent. A 2008 REAP canvas survey in 3 N orthwest and Central provinces (Shaanxi; Ningxia and Henan) found that in poor, rural areas the number of young children in pre-school drops to 20% or lower. Institutional Setting Why is there such a gap in ECE care in China? One reason may be due to the diffe rences in the institutional setting. Preschools in China are private. The govern ment provides very limited support for preschools and ECE programs, in general. There is no large-scale government compensation programs, like Head Start in the United States, to help families and their children gain access to preschool edu cation. Therefore, in large and middle-sized cities, where income levels are muc h higher than in rural areas, most families self-finance the preschool education of their children. In addition, there is a lower availability of preschools in rural areas. Even if parents pull together enough money and decide to send their children to prescho ols, preschools are often not close enough to where they live to make it feasibl e. In many cases, ECE facilities may be absent altogether. Problems with ECE in China: Curriculum An effective ECE curriculum should be an integration of sufficient care and invo lvement from family and pre-school caregivers together with educational stimulat ion. Interpersonal relationships between young children and their teachers and p arents are crucial for building their social and intellectual competence. Yet, w hile urban preschools in China can be quite costly, they are often seen as provi ding children with relatively low quality education. A primary goal of preschool s in China is to provide children with physical safety and care while their pare nts are away (Wang 2006). Much less attention is given to the critical education al components needed for early childhood development.

Although there is no national curriculum, what a great number of preschool curri culums in China have in common is less structured or guided playtime and more st udying. Wu (1996, pg 13) writes, "A common method of teaching in Chinese presch ool is learning by rote or recitation in unison in class." This is despite resea rch indicating that preschool children learn through playing and other hands-on experience (Rubin, Fein and Vandenberg 1983). Historically, the emphasis in China's preschool education has been on children' s regimentation and obedience training(Ho 1986) . Wu argues (1996, pg. 14) that "the concept of governing, monitoring, interfering, and controlling (guan) summa rizes teachers' consistent actions to maintain order and discipline in the class room 'regimentation' is perhaps the best word to describe the classroom." This e mphasis in the ECE curriculum is less effective in increasing school readiness, or worse, can generate negative effects on a child's early development. While th e quality of the ECE curriculum among the private preschools of China's urban ar eas may be improving since Wu's assessment (Li 2006), there is little evidence t o suggest much has changed in the preschools and kindergartens of China's poor, rural areas. Problems with ECE in China: Teacher Quality Another problem is the low expertise of Chinese preschool teachers and ECE careg ivers. While urban preschools are staffed by teachers whose preparation varies f rom high school training or less, up to college degrees and beyond (Bai, Luo and Yin 2004), the situation is worse in rural areas. Most of the kindergarten teac hers in rural areas hold degrees in child-education from vocational middle schoo ls and vocational high schools. A considerable number of those who hold college degrees are non-child education majors (Yao and Xie 2004). Teachers have very li mited, if any, formal training related to child development, and new training op portunities are extremely limited (Yao and Xie 2004). Summary While empirical evidence is lacking in rural areas, as it is in urban areas, obs ervations of rural preschools outline a stark picture. They suggest that problem s of low quality ECE from financial and geographic barriers; to poor curriculum th at de-emphasizes guided play; delivered in low quality early childhood centers l acking stimulating materials; led by teachers with low levels of ECE training rema in large and are pervasive in China. In rural areas especially in poor, rural are as the minority of students who actually attend pre-school and day care centers re ceive a much lower quality early childhood education than their urban peers. The majority receive no early childhood education at all. REAP TAKES ACTION The trajectory towards higher educational attainment and greater lifetime succes s is first set in early childhood. Recognizing the critical need for improved ea rly childhood development for children in rural areas of China, REAP's Early Chi ldhood Education objectives are to: Document the nature of ECE in rural areas of China, describing the level of educ ational readiness; the access of children to preschool; the quality of preschool facilities and teaching resources and the overall approach to preschool curricu lum; Understand what factors encourage or discourage parents from sending their child ren to preschool; Understand how different ECE curriculum or investments or other factors will aff ect the level of school readiness among young children from poor, rural areas in China.