Browsing by Subject "osallistumisaste"

Several investigations have shown that high-quality early childhood education has positive impact on child development. Research has also shown that early childhood education has longer-term positive impacts on society as a whole. When comparing international statistics, children´s participation in Finland in early childhood education is lower than the average compared to other countries. The purpose of this thesis was to compare the changes in percentages of children participating in early childhood education in the provinces between 2016 and 2017. The aim was also to find out about the location of the municipalities in the provinces participating in the experiment of the free of charge early childhood education of the five-year olds. The thesis compared changes in participation rates across 19 provinces of Finland. In the case of free early childhood education, the provinces to which the experimental municipalities belonged were examined. The needed background information for the research was obtained from the Statistics and Indicators Bank of the Sotkanet-service maintained by the National Health and Welfare Institute and the website of Ministry of Education and Culture. The research was carried out with a comparative research method. The point of view of the study was the social science approach to early childhood education. The thesis showed that the municipalities participating in the experiment of free early childhood education were included in the provinces, where the participation rate had already increased between 2016 and 2017. However, in some of the emerging regions, the participation rate remained below the average for Finland´s 2017 participation rate. The different views of municipalities regarding early childhood education policies create inequalities between municipalities. The awareness of municipalities and families on the positive impact of early childhood education on child and society need to be increased.