Ahead of Japan, where early childhood education and childcare services were made free of charge in 2019, childcare fees were significantly reduced in the province of Quebec in Canada in 1997. After approximately 20 years of the policy in Quebec, a paper analyzing the outcomes of the reduction of childcare fees in Quebec started to attract people's attention. The paper points out that negative impacts are observed in non-cognitive skills, health, life satisfaction, and criminality for people in their 20s who had attended childcare centers in their childhood after the reduction of childcare fees.
Discussions are still underway regarding the mechanism whereby the reduction of childcare fees exerted negative impacts on children, but many researchers are now focusing on the quality of early childhood education. Prof. Christa Japel of L’Université du Québec à Montréal, who has conducted research on early childhood education in the province of Quebec for many years, pointed out the possibility that the relevant negative impacts may have been caused by the low quality of newly established childcare centers after the reduction of childcare fees.
Is it possible to ascertain the quality of early childhood education? I have tried to quantify it by using the Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale, together with Associate Prof. Fukai Taiyo of Gakushuin University, Specially Appointed Assistant Prof. Le quang, Chien of Keio University, and colleagues.
For this rating method, multiple assessor personnel are dispatched to childcare centers or kindergartens for approx. three and half hours to have them check nearly 500 indicators. The results are then converted into scores ranging from 1 to 7 points in accordance with a specific calculation method. 1 point is assigned to "inappropriate," 3 points to "minimum," 5 points to "good," and 7 points to "excellent." In addition, six specific areas measuring quality can be calculated in addition to the overall quality. The six specific areas are "Space and Furnishings," "Personal Care Routines," "Language-Reasoning," "Activities," "Interaction," and "Program Structure."
The quality of early childhood education in Japan is higher than that in the United States
The authors quantified the quality of early childhood education at authorized childcare centers and kindergartens in cooperation with multiple municipalities in Japan’s largest metropolitan areas surrounding the nation’s capital, including those in Chiba prefecture. As a result, it was found that the quality of early childhood education in Japan is higher than that in the United Sates, but significant gaps are evident between different childcare centers and kindergartens.
In cooperation with Municipality X in Tokyo, I conducted a follow-up survey of elementary students targeting children who had attended childcare centers in the city from the age of five. It was found that academic ability was higher among second graders who had attended high-quality childcare centers at the age of five. More specifically, for second graders who had attended childcare centers whose early childhood education rating was one point higher on the Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale, the average score in an achievement test in arithmetic was higher by 0.52 SD (standard deviations) and by 0.55 SD in Japanese.
The next question is therefore how early childhood education can be enhanced. The research group conducted two experiments. One was conducted in cooperation with Municipality X in Tokyo and involved one hour of expert feedback based on the results of the Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale.
As mentioned above, under the Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale, a score of three is considered a “minimum” score for a viable childcare center. Therefore, the focus was placed on items that scored below three out of the 35 total items. Experts explained why the specific items scored below three points to the head teachers of childcare center and kindergarten classes and to the principals / heads, and then together discussed ways to improve.
In consideration for the busy schedules of nursery staff members and teachers, etc., efforts were made to simplify and finish the feedback session within one hour. To ensure accurate verification of the effects, half of all authorized childcare centers and kindergartens in the city were randomly selected to conduct feedback. Upon analysis, the average score (out of seven) under the Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale improved by 0.52 points for childcare centers and kindergartens that received feedback than for those which did not.
The study group also conducted another experiment jointly with two private companies, namely Torana, Inc., which provides subscription services for toys for young children under the brand "Toysub!," and a company that operates multiple childcare centers in other municipalities in Tokyo.
In this experiment, from the perspective of promoting children's development, after having discussions with experts, the study group asked Torana, Inc. to provide toys that included images and pictures to childcare centers operated by the latter company.
As evident in the figure above, the scores are especially low for the specific subcategory "Activities," within the Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale. This subcategory rates whether childcare centers and kindergartens are ensuring that children's playtime includes activities that allow children to develop fine motor skills, or experience art, music/movement, blocks, dramatic play, nature/science, math/numbers, etc.
Correlation between toys and scores for the subcategory "Activities"
In order to conduct accurate verification of whether providing toys increased scores for the subcategory, "Activities," classes that used the toys provided by Torana, Inc. and classes that did not were randomly divided (due consideration was given to the provision of toys in the next year onward so as to avoid inequality).
It became clear that scores for the subcategory, "Activities," (out of seven) were higher by 0.3 points on average for classes that used the toys than for classes that did not. It was a simple intervention that only involved placing the provided toys in the classrooms, but making play equipment and toys that will expand children's play in terms of both quality and quantity available did in fact increase scores for the subcategory, "Activities;" and this is good news. Letting children use play equipment and toys that are appropriate to their stage of development may also enhance the quality of the relationship between childcare staff and kindergarten teachers and the children in their care.
(For the reference documents for this article, see "New Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale (i) (ECERS-3)" authored by Thelma Harms, Richard M. Clifford, and Debby Cryer and translated by Uzuhashi Reiko (2016).)
>> Original text in Japanese
* Translated by RIETI.
October 26, 2024 Weekly Toyo Keizai
