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productivity (As cited in Carneiro & Heckman, 2003) and that early enrichment for disadvantaged
children increases the probability of later economic success (As cited in Currie & Blau, 2005)’. In the
light of those positive research results, now it is widely agreeable that ECE matters in a large range of
aspects of human competency development.
From a socioeconomic perspective, Cunha et al. (2005) referred to relevant literatures and
integrated main findings by presenting the rates of return to educational funding according to critical
stages of life circle in figure 1. It is noticeable that a remarkable return rate appears in the stage of
preschool programs. Along with the growth of age, human capital investment sees a dramatic decline
in the rate of return. This finding turns out to be a persuasive evidence to convince the essential
significance of ECE.
Figure 1. Rates of return to human capital investment initially setting investment to be equal across all
ages
Source: Cunha et al. (2005) Interpreting the evidence on life cycle skill formation.
As observed in those studies above, it is the high economic return of investing in preschool
programs that make early education a crucial issue to the development of human capacities and the
progress of contemporary societies. Responsively, educational requirements extend to early years
spontaneously. The mode of contemporary ECE is seeking to better meet the criteria for quality human
resources.
Taking the points above into account, we can safely draw a conclusion that ECE features a series
of critical characteristics in relation to a complexity of education and socio-economy. This explains
the particular attentions paid by parents, educationists, economists, and policy-makers on ECE.
Overview of Early Childhood Education Development
With all the endeavour of educators and researchers, ECE has been theoretically and practically
well developed during recent decades. ECE systems have undergone regulations in every aspect that
could possibly be improved across the world. The UK launched the Sure Start and other programmes;
the USA initiated the Head Start and family support approaches; great subsidies are commonly offered
by governments to support child care and education among OECD countries (Kamerman, 2000).
Whereas, with a diversity of historical and socio-economic circumstances, child care in different areas
share similarities as well as disparities.
Due to the active interactions between countries in Europe for centuries, early education
approaches share ‘a remarkable degree of similarity among ECE systems in western industrialized
countries’ (Tietze, et al., 1996, p. 449). Take Germany for example. According to the point of Cryer et
al. (2002), Germany takes measures to make ECE services affordable to most families based on a
subsidized sliding scale. Thus cost is not a strong consideration when German parents make their
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