In its recent recommendations the Council of the European Union states that all girls and boys should have access to quality early childhood development, care and pre-primary education.

The Council of the European Union has released their recommendations on access to quality early childhood development (ECD), care and pre-primary education.

The Council recommends to all Member States to improve access to high-quality ECD in line with the statements set out in the ‘Quality framework for early childhood education and care’, a key EU document when it is about the development of young children. Read the ISSA tool on the Framework for more information.

Quality and Equal Access to ECD

The recommendations say that all children should enter quality education as soon as possible.  All children whether they are disadvantaged or not and regardless of their ethical background, religion etc. 

On this, the document specifies that: “[e]arly childhood education and care participation can be an effective tool to achieve educational equity for children in a disadvantaged situation, such as some migrant or minority groups (for example Roma) and refugee children, children with special needs including disabilities, children in alternative care and street children, children of imprisoned parents, as well as children within households at particular risk of poverty and social exclusion, such as single-parent or large households.”

Download the recommendations here.