If you want to understand the future of a country, do not start in its universities. Start in its kindergartens, creches and nurseries.
Because by the age of 5, the story is already being written. Early childhood development is not just a warm-up act for education; it is the foundation. It shapes whether a child will thrive in school, feel confident in life, and ultimately find their place in society. When children fall behind at this stage, the consequences are not minor delays. They are gaps that are difficult – and expensive – to close later. Gaps that can quietly follow a child throughout their life.
Here is the uncomfortable truth: the results from the OECD’s Early Learning and Child Well-being Study (IELS 2025) show that by age 5, those gaps are already wide, both within and across countries. In some countries, children have solid foundations in emergent literacy and numeracy. In others, they are struggling to get off the starting line. And it is not just about preparing for later learning. The data show the same divides in social and emotional skills, in working memory, and in the mental flexibility children need to solve problems – the very skills that define how they will learn, adapt, and navigate the world.
This is not just an education issue. It’s an economic issue, a social issue and a question of fairness. But the good news is that this is not destiny. The data point to something profoundly important: a significant share of the differences we observe can be traced to one factor that we can influence directly - the quality of early childhood education and care. In other words, policy matters a lot. When governments invest in well-trained staff, rich and stimulating learning environments, teaching that responds to each child, and the nurturing of social and emotional development, they are not just improving preschool. They are shaping life trajectories at the moment when the money invested delivers the highest return.
Early childhood education and care, however, is only part of the story. Long before a child enters a classroom, learning is already taking place at home – and what happens there matters enormously. The evidence is clear: it is not just how much parents do with their children, but how they do it. The most powerful interactions are often the simplest ones, such as those that involve attention, language, curiosity, and exchange. A conversation. A question. A shared moment over a book. All of these create the back-and-forth – the rhythm of human interaction – through which development truly comes alive.
Family resources do matter, but this is where the debate should evolve. Meaningful, engaged parent-child interactions make a difference well above and beyond socio-economic status. That means this is not just about income; it is about awareness, support, and opportunity. Once again, policy has a role to play by helping families understand and enable the interactions that most powerfully shape children’s outcomes.
What makes IELS 2025 so powerful is that it does not just look at one piece of the puzzle. It brings together direct assessments of the cognitive, social and emotional foundations of children with insights from parents and teachers. It looks across multiple domains of development at once. In doing so, it gives us something we have long been missing: a clear and comparable picture of how children are really doing at the very start of their learning journeys.
If we connect these early signals with what we already know from later stages of education, a powerful insight emerges: much is happening before – and shaping – what we observe at age 15, when the OECD carries out PISA mathematics, reading and science tests.
It begins in early childhood – quietly, unevenly, but decisively. And that means that if we are serious about equity, about excellence, about the kind of societies we want to build, then we need to start where it matters most. At the very beginning.
Andreas Schleicher
Director, OECD Directorate for Education and Skills and Special Advisor to the Secretary-General on Education
