1 Tarja Kahiluoto What Data? For What Purpose? Which Data for International Comparison? Thoughts from Finland OECD Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) Network 21 June 2010 T

2 Tarja Kahiluoto The reasons (for collecting data) It is important to understand for what purpose we are collecting the data - policy making!  What is the added value obtained  The data collected should be relevant for various purposes  Clear explanation of the reason for collecting data

3 Tarja Kahiluoto Aspects (of collecting data)  The terms/concepts have to be clear, especially when collecting data for international comparisons.  Financing of what services? Preschool, day care, full- time, part-time etc.  Who will the data serve?  The data should be: –Comparable –Reliable –Easily available, for instance from national statistics The collected data must be analysed and easily accessible, not only in OLIS

A proposition of issues, 1  Funding of ECEC services for children 0 to school-age, excluding parental leaves.  All different services which these cover should be clarified (preschool, day care, home care, private and public etc. )  The % of GDP of these services.  What is the financing model, that is how are the costs covered and by whom? Is it the state, the local government, the parents, some other and how many percentage do they each cover of the costs?  The running costs of pre-school education?  The running costs of a full-time place in day care per child per month (and this separately for children under 3 and over 3 years old if possible).  The running costs of a part-time place in day care per child per month (and this separately for children under 3 and over 3 years old if possible). 4 Tarja Kahiluoto

A proposition of issues, 2  Is preschool free, from what age and how many hours /year?  What are the client fees in day care? Are they regulated? Is day care free of cost for low-income families?  Average day care costs to parents: How many percentage do the client fees cover of the costs of day care?  Do countries have subsidies/allowances directed to families to arrange private care or to support families taking care of their children themselves (for instance home care allowance and private care allowance in Finland)? It would be interesting to analyze what types of financial systems produce good quality ECEC and promote equity/equality. 5 Tarja Kahiluoto