Early Childhood Education
Publication Date
2026
Abstract
This systematic review synthesises global evidence from academic and grey literature published between 2015 and 2025, examining effective policies and interventions aimed at increasing ECCE participation across diverse country contexts, with a focus on equity dimensions such as gender, disability, socio-economic status and geographic location. The multifaceted nature of increasing ECCE participation is highlighted, exploring institutional, interventionist, preventative, and compensatory policies as per the GEM policy typology, while emphasising equity, quality, and contextual factors. These categories reflect the different levels and areas within which policies operate, noting that in practice, approaches to increase ECCE participation often are combined or overlap.
Recommended Citation
Dabrowski, A., Nietschke, Y., Ahmed, S., Hsien, M., & Friedman, T. (2026). Systematic review of early childhood and pre-primary education. UNESCO. https://doi.org/10.54676/GEFR8396
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License.
Copyright Statement
Copyright UNESCO under licence CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
Place of Publication
Paris
Publisher
UNESCO
DOI
https://doi.org/10.54676/GEFR8396
Included in
Early Childhood Education Commons, Educational Assessment, Evaluation, and Research Commons, International and Comparative Education Commons
Comments
Background paper to the Global education monitoring report 2026: Access and equity: countdown to 2030.