in Japan

participation. Many working mothers find it challenging to continue working once they have children, and so they tend to leave the workforce to stay home and care for their children. This tendency is reflected in the lower female labor force participation rate (about 36 percent) in Sri Lanka (Solotaroff, Joseph, and kuriakose 2020). The government is keen to increase the female labor force participation rate and has set a target of developing for child day-care centers 10,000 female caregivers who have attained a national vocational Qualifications Level 4 certificate. in light of the government’s interest in establishing child day-care centers, it will be important for the country to explore the best means of achieving this goal. Many countries have followed an integrated model for eCCe in which both child day-care services (for children under three) and early childhood education (for children between the ages of three and five) are established and managed in an integrated system, often under one government agency or body. Box 4.4 describes

BOX 4.4

Integrating early childhood day care and early childhood education in Japan

kindergartens and day-care centers emerged as separate entities in post–World War ii Japan. Demographic changes, coupled with changes in the labor market, shuffled demand between the two, reducing the demand for kindergartens and increasing the demand for day-care centers. in response to these changes, Japan began taking steps to integrate eCCe, culminating in enactment of the Act on Advancement of Comprehensive Service Related to education, Child Care, etc. of Preschool Children in 2006. This act facilitated the establishment of kodomoen—day care–kindergarten facilities. According to the act, these facilities fell into four main categories: (1) day care–kindergarten collaborations— an authorized kindergarten and an authorized day-care center that collaborate to manage comprehensive operations; (2) kindergarten type—an authorized kindergarten with day-care functions; (3) day-care center type—an authorized day-care center with kindergarten functions; and (4) local discretion type.

This initial concept of the kodomoen did not yield the expected results. experts reflected on the effort and concluded that

this educational reform has failed to achieve groundbreaking results, and ended up merely adding a third facility to the traditional dual systems despite the enormous efforts that both Ministries had devoted to the legislation in the Diet session … The reason that the number of this new type of facility shows sluggish growth is that in the end, there is not much support from the government, except for the collaboration day care–kindergarten type, which receives a small amount of financial aid. There then seems no advantage to changing an existing facility to create a certified kodomoen. Both Ministries are currently making an all-out effort to review the kodomoen system. (Shirakawa 2010)

Further reforms yielded the Act on Child and Childcare Support in 2012, which aimed to resolve some of the issues with the kodomoen system. Further reforms culminated in development of the Comprehensive Support System for Children and Child Rearing, which came into effect in 2015. This system has three primary aims: (1) provide highquality education and care; (2) eliminate children on waiting lists; and (3) support childcare within the local community.

Today, four main types of facilities provide early childhood services in Japan: kindergartens, day-care centers, eCCe centers, and local childcare facilities. under this system, parents are required to seek approval for the type of facility they would like to use. The eCCe centers provide education and care in the same facility.

Source: Warnasuriya, Sosale, and Dey 2020.

the integrated model for childcare and early childhood education developed by Japan. ultimately, Sri Lanka will have to decide whether to expand child day-care services under an integrated model or in a differentiated model.

All eCCe centers should use curricula with common goals and approaches. A strong eCCe curriculum, which cultivates core pre-academic abilities such as emotional security, curiosity, language, and self-regulation, is a core component of effective eCCe programming (World Bank 2018). experts agree that such a curriculum should have a clear purpose, goals, and approaches (Bertrand 2007; oeCD 2013b). A well-defined curriculum can promote better and more consistent quality across eCCe centers (oeCD 2013b). Although preschool curricula vary widely, they can be divided into two broad categories. The first, the “global” curriculum, tends to be wider in scope, implementing activities to promote socioemotional, language, literacy, and mathematics skills, as well as subjectspecific knowledge of science, the arts, and social studies (Yoshikawa et al. 2013). The other main type, the “developmentally focused” curriculum, aims to focus on a specific content or subject area. This curriculum is based on the assumption that skills can be better fostered if its scope is narrower (Yoshikawa et al. 2013). Although curriculum approaches may vary, experts generally agree that a high-quality curriculum is based on early learning standards that address multiple domains of development—academic, socioemotional, and physical. They also emphasize the importance of guided learning opportunities that are language-rich and hands-on (Wechsler et al. 2016). Moving forward, it is important that Sri Lanka review its eCCe curriculum to ensure that the content and quality are in line with international best practices.

Sri Lanka must also continue to focus on improving the quality of its eCCe workforce. Teacher quality is one of the most vital elements in determining the effectiveness of early education programs. A high-quality curriculum must be well implemented if it is to be effective, and strong implementation requires high-quality teachers. Research suggests that teachers with special knowledge of early childhood development are particularly important to the implementation of successful eCCe programming (Bueno, Darling-Hammond, and Gonzales 2010). Many successful eCCe programs, such as those in the united States, require their lead teachers to have a bachelor’s degree with a specialization in early childhood education (Bueno, Darling-Hammond, and Gonzales 2010; Wechsler et al. 2016). Many studies suggest that a higher level of education is generally associated with higher pedagogic quality in eCCe (oeCD 2012). nonetheless, the relationship between qualification and eCCe outcomes is complex, and it is not entirely clear that a degree or a high level of specialization in early childhood development is a prerequisite for a high-quality eCCe teacher (oeCD 2012). What is clear, however, is that teachers with specialized training are able to provide a more nurturing, interactive environment for children (Bueno, Darling-Hammond, and Gonzales 2010).

The government recognizes the importance of the quality of the eCCe workforce, and to this end it has initiated a range of short-term programs to improve the quality of eCCe teachers. Programs include providing professional training (that is, diploma/certificate training) in estate and nonestate areas, in partnership with the open university of Sri Lanka and the national institute of education (nie). However, in the long term the country will have to focus on improving its strategy for recruiting and retaining high-quality teachers, particularly those with degrees or specializations in early childhood development, to raise the bar of eCCe teacher quality in Sri Lanka.