Overview: Why we need indicators on early childhood education and care

Early childhood education and care (ECEC) has experienced an increase in policy attention globally over the two past decades, with major initiatives recently launched at the international level. ECEC is one of the 10 targets Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), while the International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED 2011) was implemented in 2011 and better captures programmes for very young children. For more than 15 years, the OECD has conducted analysis and developed new data on ECEC to provide valid, timely and comparable international information to help support countries review and redesign policies to improve their early childhood services and systems. This publication brings together for the first time all the key indicators in one volume dedicated to ECEC. This overview chapter includes the main findings of the publication and the challenges for improving the ECEC sector. The scoreboard at the end shows the data underlying some key indicators on ECEC.