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| Long-term benefits of high quality early education |
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One of the world's oldest education studies announced its latest findings recently, bringing welcome reassurance to parents
who place their children in child care. Founded in 1971, the Abecedarian Project has followed 96 children who participated
in an early education program for at-risk infants for 45 years.
The study provided the children with high-quality education, five days a week from six-weeks old through to
kindergarten and found that the provision of early education can make a lifetime of difference to the child.
The latest data from the project found that the children who received
the early education were significantly more likely to be employed full time, have close relationships with their
parents, be more likely to attend college or university and have more financial and personal assets.
Professor Craig Ramey, who spearheaded the Abecedarian Project said, "The most recent findings from the
Abecedarian Project are about the quality of life, tied to what the children experienced in the first five years
of life."
"We have demonstrated that when we provide vulnerable children and families with really high quality
services – educationally, medically, socially – we have impacts of a large and practical magnitude all the way
up to middle age."
According to Ramey, the quality of natural teaching, and the social interaction between teacher and child,
is highly important. This connection between teacher and child included things like benefiting from the conversational
aspect of language and interactive reading as a fun experience, rather than a chore.
Ramey said, "Part of our task is to make what we now know to be so important – high-quality, early childhood
education and care – widely available to all who need it."
Sharon Ramey, chief science officer of Roanoke, Virginia, who has contributed to the project since 1987, explained
that the children who received high quality early education and care had a greater sense of equality, finding that
they, "Make decisions that balance the equation between those who 'have' and those who 'have much less'."
The latest findings from the Project also found that the children who received the high quality early education
and care enjoyed "better physical health in their mid-30s than peers who did not attend the program."
And it was not only the children that benefited. The education project also brought advantages for the teenage
mothers of those children in the study. These mothers were more likely to have finished school and gone on to further
training, be more likely to be self-supporting and have a decreased reliance on social assistance.
Economically,
the study found that for every dollar spent on the program, the taxpayers saved $2.50 – as a result of higher incomes,
reduced healthcare costs and less need for government services. This illustrates that the provision of early education
can help reduce some of the disadvantages faced by at-risk infants.
Sweden, an international leader in education and early childhood care, has put this into practice, where today
83 per cent of Swedish children ages one to six, and 95 per
cent of children aged three to six are in preschool. Their policy of EDUCARE, where early care and education go
hand-in-hand, exists to provide a space for every Swedish child in a high-quality, accessible preschool.
This provision is not just for the children of professional women, but is instead grounded in the belief that
every child deserves the very best care and education the nation can offer. Britain has also taken this on board
in recent years, offering 15 hours of free early childhood education to all three- and four-year-old children,
as well as to the most disadvantaged 40 per cent of two-year olds.
Other countries, including Germany, Canada, Denmark and Finland have also installed similar systems,
believing that this provision of high quality education and care for children under five years old is building
a more prosperous nation, making it possible for professional women to remain in the workforce, as well as setting
the foundation to support future generations.
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