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Estonia is an international education leader, achieving high levels of performance and equity among students. The Estonian education system is striking in its openness to learning and improving. Education leaders and practitioners in Estonia embrace data and other evidence as a means for continual improvement. Systems like Estonia that can learn, can adapt and can continue to learn will inevitably serve their students well. They will also postion themselves well for the opportunities and the challenges of the future.
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The first five years of a child’s life can be a period of great opportunity, and great vulnerability. Children learn at a faster rate than at any other time in their lives, building the foundations for their future cognitive and social-emotional skills development. Building advanced cognitive and social-emotional skills is far more difficult and less effective at later ages without a strong early foundation. Education systems that wish to achieve a step-change in student outcomes are well advised to increase their focus on the quality, responsiveness and effectiveness of their early years policies for children.
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The International Early Learning and Child Well-being Study (IELS) puts a spotlight on how children are faring at five years of age. IELS directly measures key indicators of children’s learning, as well as collecting a broad range of development and contextual information from children’s parents and teachers.
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The International Early Learning and Child Well-Being Study (IELS) puts a spotlight on how children are faring at age five. This chapter presents the rationale for focusing on children’s learning and development in the earliest years, and outlines the importance of having evidence on early learning that is comparable across countries. The chapter also provides information on the overall design of the study.
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This chapter provides contextual information to inform the interpretation of the IELS results in Estonia. It highlights demographic information about children and their families in Estonia; the national early learning policies; an overview of the early childhood and care services available; and discussion of their quality and impact. The chapter concludes with an overview of major issues and debates relating to the early learning sector in Estonia and a statement about what IELS can contribute to a growing body of international evidence on early learning.
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This chapter presents findings on the social-emotional skills of five-year-olds in Estonia. It shows the differences in social-emotional scores across multiple subgroups of children, considering their individual and family characteristics, as well as their home learning environments. This is based on a direct assessment of children’s skills and reports from the children’s parents and educators.
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This technical note provides additional background information on technical aspects relating to the International Early Learning the Child Well-being Study (IELS). It sets out the rationale for the types of assessment used in the study, response rates and other factors influencing the robustness, reliability and comparability of the data. More information on the conceptual and technical aspects of the study can be found in the Assessment Framework and Technical Standards for the study.