Mostafa, Tarek; Green, Andy; (2013) Pre-School Education and Care: A ‘Win-Win’ Policy? In: Janmaat, Germ and Duru-Bellat, Marie and Green, Andy and Mehaut, Philippe, (eds.) The Dynamics and Social Outcomes of Education Systems. (pp. 160-181). Palgrave Macmillan: London.

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Abstract

Pre-school education and care (PSEC) is often claimed as a ‘win-win’ policy which simultaneously enhances both economic competitiveness and social cohesion. High levels of PSEC are said to raise living standards by increasing female employment rates and improving young people’s skills and to mitigate inequalities by reducing social gaps in learning outcomes. Much of the evidence for this rests on analysis of data for a small number of countries. In this chapter we test the claims using two datasets: the first is a cross-national time series for 16 OECD countries, and the second is PISA 2009. The analysis of determinants of employment rates, using a variety of controls, does confirm the positive impact of PSEC participation levels on female employment rates. Similarly, the analysis of PISA 2009 data confirms that attending PSEC enhances performance scores at the age of 15, and universalising it reduces their dispersion. However, our findings show that the dispersion of performance scores drops until reaching a minimum when the participation rate in PSEC is at 70%, and then starts to increase again.

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