Investing in Early Years

First, the bad news: “The education system is our best chance to implement equal opportunities. But in fact, it actually reinforces social differences,” says education researcher Kaspar Burger. He leads the Swiss National Science Foundation research project “Understanding social gradients in education” at the Jacobs Center for Productive Youth Development, which looks at the social gap in education. The paradox, that schools can provide more equal opportunities but often fail to do so, is difficult to resolve, explains Burger. “This is also due to the fact that the education system rewards skills that are acquired outside of it.” And it rewards the skills that are most in line with the system.

The sticking point for schools is this: they only begin educating children once they’ve already acquired disparate skills. The abilities of each child by the time they start school depend heavily on their background. Many of the social and cognitive skills acquired in the first years of a child’s life are learned not at school, but within their family. “Schools then only manage to maintain these differences,” says Burger. Nothing more. What can be done to achieve better equal opportunities? According to Burger, we need to invest more in high-quality early education and childcare. And these should be accessible to all children, regardless of their family’s financial situation. 

This means day care should be free of charge. If access to these options is (too) expensive, they will only be used by the families who can afford it. But these are often not the families who need it the most. Studies show that investing in early years is worth it. Alongside improved child development, there are also positive effects such as greater rates of participation in the workforce among women, savings in social benefits, better school and university outcomes for parents and an overall better quality of life. 

Alongside publicly funded early childhood education and care, Kaspar Burger has studied other mechanisms that are expected to provide more equal opportunities, such as higher state contributions for families and more paid parental leave. The study looked at the effect of child benefits and parental leave on social inequality and the academic performance of 10-year-old children. The findings are mixed. Higher child benefits contribute somewhat to closing the gap in academic achievement between more and less privileged children. This is positive in terms of equal opportunities.  

In contrast, longer paid parental leave deepens the differences in performance between 10-year-old pupils in mathematics, science and reading. This is because longer leave gives parents more opportunities to take care of their children and interact with them. While this has a positive effect on academic achievement, it also reinforces discrepancies.

Education researcher Kaspar Burger looked into two further aspects of social inequality influenced by education: social segregation and how future expectations impact educational success. There is little research into social segregation in Switzerland; the data come primarily from the USA. The problem of social segregation is less notable in Switzerland, because more is invested in education and schools are less closely tied to the finances of single communes. However, educational segregation is very pronounced in Switzerland. This is demonstrated by the rather large variations in rates of children going to upper secondary school in different communes and cantons. 

Another interesting factor is the effect of expectations on academic success. In principle, high expectations are good, as they lead to better outcomes. “When there is an expectation that you can achieve something, you remain persistent and don’t give up when faced with setbacks,” explains Burger. This often pays off. High ambitions are good, regardless of where you start from. However, according to Burger there’s a “but”: the education system must offer the opportunity to achieve these goals. But that’s not always the reality. “The effect of positive future expectations is often undermined by gaps in the system.” In particular, children are advised to do vocational training rather than go to university based on their social background, regardless of their actual abilities.  

The Swiss education system is permeable in principle, but few pupils change paths due to the great deal of effort involved. And when it comes to educational ambitions, they are mainly shaped, and often modeled by, parents.  

As educational research shows, there are certainly strategies to ensure more equal opportunities for children. At the same time, it is clear that schools cannot do this alone, because external factors such as a child’s social environment have a powerful influence. And greater equal opportunities don’t come for free. In order to be able to offer comprehensive early education and care for all children, a “massive transformation” of the education system is required, according to Burger. 

This article appeared in the UZH Magazin 4/2024.