The quality of early childhood education is what counts

The high proportion of fourth-graders who do not meet the minimum standards in German and mathematics suggests that there should be an even stronger focus on high-quality education from the very beginning and on further expanding early childhood education. Good quality daycare centers exist when children receive cognitive, linguistic, social and physical support in them and this serves their well-being as well as their education.

In addition to improving the general conditions, process quality plays a decisive role. This refers to the quality of the actual pedagogical activities, the concrete interactions and the educational experiences of children based on them.

Studies suggest that the quality of the stimulation processes in day care centers in Germany is on average only on a mediocre level. However, we know too little about the current quality situation in German daycare centers. In schools, regular quality or competence measurements are a matter of course. In early childhood education, too, there is a need for quality monitoring that records process quality in national surveys. This can identify effective measures to improve pedagogical interactions and the stimulation experienced by children, providing a basis for evidence-based education policy.

Read the entire analysis "Auf die Kitaqualität kommt es an" as a PDF here. 

The publication is only available in German.