UNESCO in Brazil promotes family participation in the students’ school lives.

The Office has published several guides and handbooks to provide tools for early childhood education management. It has also produced inputs for the early childhood education curriculum, considering international trends and experiences.

Early childhood, defined as the period from birth to eight years old, is a time of remarkable growth with brain development at its peak. During this stage, children are highly influenced by the environment and the people that surround them.

Early childhood care and education (ECCE) is more than preparation for primary school. It aims at the holistic development of a child’s social, emotional, cognitive and physical needs in order to build a solid and broad foundation for lifelong learning and wellbeing. ECCE has the possibility to nurture caring, capable and responsible future citizens.

In this way ECCE is one of the best investments a country can make to promote human resource development, social equality and cohesion, and to reduce the costs for later remedial programmes. For disadvantaged children, ECCE plays an important role in compensating for the disadvantages in the family and combating educational inequalities.