Early childhood education in São Paulo state:conditions of care and profile of children^I

Abstract

This article aims to outline a profile of early childhood education in São Paulo state. It addresses the educational service provided to children aged zero to three years and four to five years, through a research of descriptive and explanatory nature on the coverage of early childhood education and on the socioeconomic profile of children aged zero to three years who attend and do not attend children’s education institutions. To this end, we collected data on São Paulo state from the following databases: IBGE (Demographic Census of 2010), Inep (School Census from 2008 to 2013), Fundação Seade (2012), and the Ministry of Health (Datasus, 2000 a 2012). We analyzed information on day-care centers and pre-schools and on the population age groups corresponding to early childhood education: Zero to three years (age group corresponding to day-care); four to five years (preschool). Findings indicate that, despite the expansion of early childhood education, there is a demand for preschool for seven hundred thousand children, and that less than 40% of the children aged zero to three years are enrolled in institutions of early childhood education. It was also found that children from zero to three years coming from households with a per capita income lower than a minimum wage are the most disadvantaged in terms of access to early childhood education.

Early childhood education; Educational policy; Social and educational inequalities; São Paulo state

Resumo

O objetivo do texto é traçar um perfil da educação infantil no estado de São Paulo. Aborda o atendimento educacional de crianças de zero a três anos e quatro e cinco anos, por meio de uma pesquisa de natureza descritiva e explicativa sobre cobertura em educação infantil e o perfil socioeconômico das crianças de zero a três anos que frequentam e que não frequentam instituições de educação infantil. O procedimento utilizado foi o levantamento de dados para o estado de São Paulo nas seguintes bases de dados: IBGE (Censo Demográfico de 2010); Inep (Censo Escolar de 2008 a 2013); Fundação Seade (2012) e Ministério da Saúde (Datasus, 2000 a 2012). Foram abordadas as informações sobre as creches e pré-escolas e a população nas faixas etárias correspondentes à idade escolar na educação infantil: zero a três anos (faixa etária correspondente à creche); quatro a cinco anos (pré-escola). Os resultados indicam que, apesar da expansão da educação infantil, há uma demanda de setecentas mil crianças para pré-escola, e menos de 40% das crianças de zero a três anos estão matriculadas em instituições de educação infantil. Constatou-se também que as crianças de zero a três anos provenientes de domicílios com renda per capita inferior a um salário mínimo são as mais prejudicadas em termos de acesso à educação infantil.

Educação infantil; Política educacional; Desigualdades socio-educacionais; Estado de São Paulo

Introduction

Early childhood education, which the state is obliged to provide as defined by the 1988 Federal Constitution and ratified by the Statute of the Child and Adolescent, was defined as the first stage of basic education in the National Education Guidelines and Framework Law (Law 9394/1996), and is to be provided in day care centers and preschools for children until five years old, as established by the Constitutional Amendment 53/2006.

Since 2009, with the Constitutional Amendment 59, free, compulsory basic education, which had thus far included only primary education, was extended to include all education levels for people aged 4-17. In this perspective, early childhood education, which was not originally compulsory under the Constitution, became compulsory at preschool level after Amendment 14/1996 (CURY; FERREIRA, 2010).

Considering these changes in the federal legislation, and the effect they will have on the implementation of early childhood education policies to promote education offer for children aged 4-5, this work aims to present a profile of early childhood education in the state of São Paulo with regard to education offer, and to analyze a few socioeconomic characteristics of children aged 0-3 in function of their access to early childhood education.

Early Childhood Education: From right to access

The period prior to the 1987 Constituent Assembly was marked by demands of popular movements. Seeking to influence the trajectory of the country’s newly established democracy, organized social groups claimed, among others, rights for children.

Campos, Rosemberg and Ferreira (2001) remember that, in the case of children under seven years old, demands outgrew the limits of the education area to combine with a set of demands put forth by movements of women and the Forum for the Defense of the Child and Adolescent, created in 1980 and formed by various entities and social segments which were already working to promote care and protection programs for children and adolescents, and to protect their rights.

In São Paulo, the movement of struggle for day care, which gathered momentum in the second half of the 1970’s, was situated in this climate of demands, and it brought around a series of demonstrations for the right of working women to day care (BRITO NETO, 2008; SCAVONE, 2011; GOHN, 1985). These demands allowed mothers and children to achieve the right to free day care, which the government undertook to provide along with contracted private entities (CAMPOS; ROSEMBERG, 1988).

It is worth remembering that, in the 1970’s, in the movements of struggle for day care, this demand was articulated with feminist movements and the needs of working women for a care and safety space for small children. The strengthening of these movements allowed a leap in demands for better service quality, the offer of child care and education institutions, and the expansion of public services.

During the period from 1975 to 1986, the increase in women’s participation in the job market, the mobilization of women, the creation of the Female Condition Councils, the sensitization and opening of unions to women’s rights progressively expanded and changed, in practice, the exercise of the right to day care for the children of working men and women, which brought around, among other measures, significant changes in the new Constitution (CAMPOS, ROSEMBERG, FERREIRA, 2001, p. 64).

In the 1980’s, the mobilization around this right takes on new features, with reflexes on “a new legal framework which will incorporate care for children ages 0 to six years under the banner of right” (TERRA, 2008, p. 40).

The convergence of actions around rights that are typical of democratic states resulted in a Constitution that referred to children’s rights as no longer “circumscribed to the sphere of family law” (CAMPOS, ROSEMBERG, FERREIRA, 2001, p. 17).

In the case of education, there was an advance in the legislation, with the integration of day care and preschool into the educational sector. With regard to day care centers, the change was a major one as they had until then been subordinated to social care.

In spite of the achievements, there are discrepancies between the advances. In a wider perspective, children do not have their rights to education, health and protection secured, and this is aggravated in marginalized families with limited access to social services (MONTALI; TAVARES, 2008). Access to early childhood education is still restricted, particularly in day care centers, with a process of exclusion expressed in the lack of offer, but also in access conditions (MONTALI; TAVARES, 2013; SORJ, 2004; ROSEMBERG, 2014).

The expansion of compulsoriness raises a few questions about its effectiveness, which can be measured, among others, by the increase in the offer to meet the existing demand. In the case of early childhood education, unlike primary education, where school failure is the main challenge, the focus is the insufficient offer, particularly in day care centers, considering that such offer is not mandatory, and that municipalities, which are responsible for early childhood education, must ensure universal preschool education.

According to data from the Observatório do Plano Nacional de Educação¹, in 2013, Brazil had 87.9% of children aged 4-5 and 27.9% of children aged 0-3 enrolled in preschools and day care centers, respectively. However, still according to the Observatório, it is noteworthy that the 12.1% who are not attending preschool represent around 700,000 individuals who live in different locales marked by a pronounced regional inequality, which means a great challenge to achieving universal preschool education. Likewise, we believe that his phenomenon will have some effect on day care centers, and may cause difficulties to expand service for children aged 0-3.

In the state of São Paulo, the Observatório points that day care and preschool coverage is better than the national average, with 91.4% of children aged 4-5 and 36.6% of children aged 0-3 enrolled in early childhood education institutions, in 2013, which does not mean a positive scenario, given regional disparities. In 2010, São Paulo had 61% of its 645 municipalities with a low wealth level, and 15.2% with low wealth, longevity and education levels² (SÃO PAULO, 2013a).

Methodology

The present work approaches education for children aged 0-3 and 4-5 by means of a descriptive and explanatory study about early childhood education offer and coverage³ in the state of São Paulo. We were able to portray the situation based on the variables we selected for the study: enrollments; number of enrollments separated by type of establishment (day care / preschool), age group and age; and number of enrollments by administrative dependence (municipal, state, private) and type of institution (public, contracted private).

In addition, the study focuses on the service provided for children aged 0-3, since their education has been postponed in view of the expansion of other levels of basic education. It presents day care coverage and describes the profile of children enrolled in early childhood education institutions, as well as those who are not, in terms of household situation, color/race, family structure and per capita household income.

The procedure we used was the collection of data for the state of São Paulo from the following databases: IBGE - Censo Demográfico 2010 (2010 Demographic Census); Inep - Censo Escolar 2000-2012 (School Census 2000-2012); Fundação Seade 2008-2012 (Seade Foundation 2008-2012); and Ministry of Health - Datasus 2000-2012. We selected information about day care centers and preschools and the population in the age groups corresponding to early childhood education: 0-3 years (day care); 4-5 years (preschool). Ages 0-3 were analyzed in a disaggregate way, as there are differences in the services provided for children aged 0-1, 1-2 and 2-3 with regard to coverage and administrative dependence.

We acknowledge the discrepancies between data from IBGE and Inep (KAPPEL, 2001, 2008; ROSEMBERG, 1999; ROSEMBERG; ARTES, 2012), caused by divergence between the surveys conducted by the respective entities regarding, for example, the investigation unit – for the Inep, the enrollment of students in schools and, for the IBGE, persons in the household – and time of collection. However, it is possible to conduct a comparative analysis of their results, as affirmed by Kappel (2008), since the purpose of this work is to measure the demand for education and analyze children’s attendance in function of a few demographic (household situation, color/race, age) and socioeconomic (family structure, income) characteristics.

Early Childhood Education in the State of São Paulo: Service Profiles

In the state of São Paulo, from 2007 to 2013, early childhood education expanded, showing a decline in 2009 because of a decrease in preschool offer, probably due to the transfer of six-year-olds to primary education, in compliance with the Constitutional Amendment 53/2006. In 2010, total enrollments increased, this time because of an expansion in day care offer.

From 2009 to 2011, preschool suffered an inflection, with a decrease of 190,000 places in the period (Chart 1). This does not mean that the number of children served was smaller in relation with the population that age, since, as will be seen in Chart 6, the rate of children aged 4-5 served remained relatively constant, with a decline in 2009. One of the hypotheses, besides the transfer of six-year-olds to primary school, is the decrease in the number of births, which would require a more in-depth study about population growth.

Chart 1
– Number of Enrollments in Early Childhood Education in the State of São Paulo from 2007 to 2009

Chart 6
– Distribution of Children Aged 0-3 in the State of São Paulo by Age Group and According with Attendance to Early Childhood Education and Administrative Dependence

With regard to total enrollments in early childhood education, there was an increase of around 470,000 places. It is worth noting that day care initial enrollment is inferior to preschool initial enrollment. Chart 2 allows to visualize the difference in offer between day care and preschool, indicating an approximation of lines in 2013, due to the expansion of enrollments for children aged 0-3. In 2013, in absolute numbers, approximately 880,000 day care enrollments and a million preschool enrollments were registered.

Chart 2
– Enrollments in Public and Private Day Care Centers in the State of São Paulo from 2008 to 2013

With regard to day care enrollments by administrative dependence (Chart 3), we can see that, from 2008 to 2013, the service provided by public education institutions was greater, except for 2010, due to a decrease in the number of places offered in 2009 and 2010. We can see that the decrease in the public offer takes place in a time of expansion of private institutions, as well as a decrease in preschool offer. It is not possible to affirm that the implementation of the 9-year-long basic education might have also affected somehow the number of places offered in day care centers, causing the public offer to decrease, but the expansion of private institutions is likely to be owing to contracting policies that have been conducted by municipalities to deal with the demand for day care for children aged 0-3 in 2011 (Chart 4).

Chart 3
– Total Enrollments in Public and Private Institutions in the State of São Paulo from 2008 to 2013 in Absolute Numbers

Chart 4
– Rate of Initial Enrollments in Contracted Day Care Centers and Preschools in the State of São Paulo from 2007 to 2012

In 2011, public institutions begin to offer more places than private ones again, and since then the number of enrollments has had a relatively consistent growth for both administrative dependences, as shown by Chart 3. In 2010, both offered approximately the same number of places, with a small advantage to private institutions and, from 2011, the public sphere resumes its growth, while the other has a small decline.

As for preschool, the difference between enrollments in public and private institutions is significant. As shown in Chart 4, in 2013, public preschools offered approximately 600,000 places more than private ones.

From 2008 to 2013, private enrollments did not reach above 22% of total preschool enrollments, while public institutions, despite a significant decrease, offered around 80% of places.

Early childhood education enrollments concentrate at the municipal level. In the case of day care, there are enrollments at the state level, but the figure is insignificant. With regard to private offer of early childhood education, in addition to its occurrence in for-profit institutions, it is also conducted through agreements between government and contracted nonprofit institutions, i.e., community, religious and philanthropic institutions. In this case, contracted entities “contribute to materialize the municipal policy and expand the offer of places” (CRUZ, FARAH, SUGIYAMA, 2014, p. 208).

The number of day care centers run by contracted institutions is significantly higher than in preschool institutions. Chart 4 presents the number or enrollments run by contracted institutions (community, religious or philanthropic ones) in relation with total day care and preschool enrollments.

The contracting of private entities by municipalities is not a new procedure. In São Paulo, this occurs since the 1970’s, particularly with the offer of day care, in response to social movements’ pressure because of unmet demand (CAMPOS, ROSEMBERG, 1988). In the city of São Paulo, there was a movement for day care centers (GOHN, 1985) and the demand for direct public institutions, which were built by the municipality, since there was criticism towards the indirect offer (i.e., via contracted institutions), based on arguments about the quality of the service provided (SCAVONE, 2011). In spite of that, the contracting policy has been a strategy used by municipalities to expand the offer, primarily, of day care centers.

Although early childhood offer was expanded, when we look at the number of enrollments in relation with the child population aged 0-5, we can see that the number of children served is very small. Chart 5 shows the rates of children served in day care centers and preschools in the state of São Paulo, from 2008 to 2012:

Chart 5
– Rate of Children Served in Day Care Centers and Preschools in the State of São Paulo from 2008 to 2012 (in %)

The rate of children served is obtained through the relation between the number of enrollments and the size of the population in the 0-3 and 4-5 age groups. To calculate this rate, we consulted the School Census (Inep) and the Datasus (Ministry of Health) for the period from 2008 to 2012. In Inep, more specifically the synopses of School Censuses, we consulted the number of enrollments in day care centers and preschools, and in Datasus, the count (and projections) of the population in the age groups corresponding to day care and preschool. This rate of children served allows only an approximation to reality. Because it involves different data bases, it provides a panorama of the access to early childhood education, allowing to visualize the differences between day care and preschool, the size of the educational offer in relation to the existing population, and the challenges to be faced so the goals established in the National Education Plan (2014 – 2024) with regard to early childhood education can be met.

Chart 5 indicates that, in the state of São Paulo in 2013, preschool was provided for over 90% of children aged 4-5. In the case of day care, although a consistent expansion can be seen since 2008, the rate of zero- to three-year-olds served reached around 40%.

Providing Early Childhood Education: For Whom? In What Conditions?

By focusing on the early childhood education provided for children aged 0-3 according to data from the Demographic Census, we can produce a profile of the children attending day care centers or equivalent institutions in function of demographic and socioeconomic variables. In this perspective, we will present data referring to the location of day care centers in the state of São Paulo, the type of service provided and the profile of children in terms of color/race, family income and per capita income.

This is necessary because, in the set of public social policies, day care should be articulated with a social protection policy that ensures children’s rights to an environment that is healthy, safe and adequate for their development. Based on data from the Census, what we can see, besides the restriction to access mentioned earlier, is the maintenance of social inequality and the aggravation of poverty, given the difficulty for children from low-income homes to have access to early childhood education.

According to the Demographic Census (2010), there were 2.2 million children aged 0-3 living in the state of São Paulo. Of these children counted in 2010, 68.1% were not attending early childhood education, 22.3% were attending a public institution, and only 9.6% were enrolled in a private institution. It’s also worth highlighting that 7.4% of children in this age group were enrolled in nursery schools or kindergartens, i.e., they were attending preschool (Table 1). This rate, albeit small, represents approximately 158,000 children. For this reason, and also because this part of the work is not focused on institutions, but on children aged 0-3 and their conditions of access to early childhood education, from this point onwards, we will deal with the age group, rather than day care. This methodological choice leaves aside early childhood education institutions and their specificities for each age group, but elects children aged 0-3 as the focus of the analysis.

Table 1
– Children Aged 0-3 Attending Early Childhood Education in the State of São Paulo in 2010

	Attendance	%
Not Attending	1,449,442	68.1
Day Care	520,489	24.5
Preschool (nursery school and kindergarten)	158,074	7.4
Total	2,128,004	100.0

• Source: IBGE, Censo Demográfico 2010 – the authors’ own elaboration.

Of the 2.2 million children aged 0-3 living in the state of São Paulo, 96% live in urban areas. They are significantly concentrated in the São Paulo metropolitan area and the state’s inland regions, and the number of enrollments in private institutions is greater in these areas.

Early childhood education enrollments occur fundamentally in urban areas (Table 2), while the number of enrollments in institutions located in rural areas is very small (98% of enrollments are in urban areas, and 2% in rural areas).

Table 2
– Enrollments of Zero- to- Three-Year-Olds in Childhood Education, in Public and Private Institutions, by Location⁴

	Urban (98%)		Rural (2%)
	N	%	N	%
Public	361.086	66,6	7.477	87,4
Private	181.156	33,4	1.084	12,6
Total	542.242	100	8.561	100

• Source: IBGE, Censo Demográfico 2010 – the authors’ own elaboration.

Of these 98% of enrollments in urban areas, 67% are in public institutions, and 33% in private institutions. The share of private institutions in rural areas is much smaller than that of public ones.

Another important aspect to be considered regarding children aged 0-3 is the fact that children under one year old have less access to early childhood education for several reasons. Their need for breastfeeding and maternity leave, but also the lack of suitable infrastructure to serve babies in early childhood education institutions, are factors that contribute to a more restricted service. Thus, day care centers have been serving children over two years of age, while the number of enrollments of children under one year is insignificant.

In Chart 6, we can see that 90% of children aged 0-1 are not enrolled in day care, nearly 70% of children aged 1-2 are in the same situation, and 57.7% of children aged 2-3 are attending an early childhood education institution. In other words, in 2010, of the 30% of the population of zero- to three-year-olds who were enrolled in early childhood education, most were children over 2 years old.

Considering the ages in function of administrative dependence, we can see that the number of children under one year old served in the private sector is practically half of that in the public sector and, as children grow older, places offered in the private sector increase, although they are few, compared to the public sector.

With regard to the rate of children enrolled or not in early childhood education, we can see in Table 3 that most of them are not attending any institution; however, with regard to the population who self-defined as black, this rate declines slightly, which means that access is proportionally higher among black children in public institutions. Among those who self-defined as white, the rate attending a private institution is higher than the rates of other racial groups. Among other races, which were not specified as they represent a very small part of the population aged 0-3 in the state of São Paulo, are yellow children, whose enrollment rate in private institutions is high.

Table 3
– Children Aged 0-3 Living in the State of São Paulo, Enrolled or Not in Early Childhood Education (EI), According to Color/Race

Race Yes, Public		Children Attending or Not Early Childhood Education			Total
		Yes, Private	Not Attending
White	N	285,281	170,366	971,779	1,427,426
	%	20.0%	11.9%	68.1%	100.0%
Black	N	21,878	4,138	40,989	67,005
	%	32.7%	6.2%	61.2%	100.0%
Brown	N	164,549	26,265	425,167	615,981
	%	26.7%	4.3%	69.0%	100.0%
Other	N	2,640	3,445	11,507	17,592
	%	15.0%	19.6%	65.4%	100.0%
Total	N	474348	204214	1449442	2128004
	%	22,3%	9,6%	68,1%	100,0%

• Source: IBGE, Censo Demográfico 2010 – the authors’ own elaboration.

By observing the absolute numbers for each color/race category, we can see that, in the state of São Paulo, less than 4% of children aged 0-3 are classified as black, and that children in the state are predominantly white, representing approximately 67% of the population in this age group. Although it is a significantly smaller population, we can see the importance of public institutions for black children aged 0-3, particularly when we consider that, according to data from the 2010 Demographic Census, 78% of them are from families with a per capita household income below one minimum wage.

With regard to the family structure children are integrated into, we can see an aspect that is mainly associated with zero- to three-year-olds’ attendance to public or private institutions (Table 4). The family structure formed by a couple and children, i.e., a more traditional model of family, indicates a higher rate of children enrolled in private institutions. As for family structures where men and women live without their spouse and need a place for their children aged 0-3, the rate of children not attending early childhood education declines, although it is still very high, indicating that family heads possibly depend on places in institutions to be able to work. In turn, the presence of relatives in the same household seems to correspond to an increase in the number of children not attending day care, probably because these relatives are helping with child care.

Table 4
– Type of Family Structure of Nuclear and Extended Families of Children aged 0-3 Living in the State of São Paulo According to Attendance to Early Childhood Education Institutions

Family Structures Yes, Public		Children Attending or Not Attending Day Care			Total
		Yes, Private	Not Attending
Couple with Children	N	290,130	156,554	957,443	1,404,127
	%	20.7%	11.1%	68.2%	100.0%
Couple with Children and Relatives	N	3,1480	8,983	97,705	13,8168
	%	22.8%	6.5%	70.7%	100.0%
Female without a Spouse and with Children	N	42,338	9,825	64,923	11,7086
	%	36.2%	8.4%	55.4%	100.0%
Female without a Spouse, with Children and Relatives	N	22,061	5,635	50,772	78,468
	%	28,1%	7,2%	64,7%	100,0%
Male without a Spouse and with Children	N	1,754	370	3,223	5,347
	%	32.8%	6.9%	60.3%	100.0%
Male without a Spouse, with Children and Relatives	N	2,762	878	7,474	11,114
	%	24.9%	7.9%	67.2%	100.0%

• Source: IBGE, Censo Demográfico 2010 – the authors’ own elaboration.

Finally, with regard to the family income of children aged 0-3, we analyzed the economic situation of this population using the per capita household income (in minimum wages) variable in relation to enrollment in an early childhood education institution. However, a simple descriptive analysis of this variable in Table 5 already allows to visualize the poverty and social inequality conditions, indicating that 36.3% of children aged 0-3 live in households where the per capita income does not reach above half a monthly minimum wage, and almost 70% of this population live with less than one monthly minimum wage per capita.

Table 5
– Per Capita Household Income of the Population Aged 0-3 in the State of São Paulo

Per Capita Family Income (MW)	N	%
[0-0.5]	772,250	36.3
]0.5-1.0]	670,126	31.5
]1.0-2.0]	408,086	19.2
>2	274,837	12.9
Total	2,125,300	99.9
Missing	2,705	.1
Total	2,128,004	100.0

• Source: IBGE, Censo Demográfico 2010 – the authors’ own elaboration.

By analyzing this variable in function of zero- to three-year-olds’ attendance to an early childhood education institution (Table 6), we can see that, of total children in the 0-3 age group, 23.2% are attending a public early childhood education institution, 9.6% are in private institutions, and 68.1% are not attending any institution.

Table 6
– Children Aged 0-3 in the State of São Paulo Attending or Not Attending Day Care by Per Capita Family Income in Minimum Wages

Children Attending or Not Attending Day Care		Per Capita Family income in MW				Total
		[0-0.50]	]0.5-1.0]	]1.0-2.0]	>2
Yes, Public	N	179,258	172,898	95,327	26,052	473,535
	% with or without Day Care Attendance	37.9%	36.5%	20.1%	5.5%	100.0%
	% with Family Income	23.2%	25.8%	23.4%	9.5%	22.3%
Yes, Private	N	16,381	29,782	54,966	102,984	204,113
	% with or without Day Care Attendance	8.0%	14.6%	26.9%	50.5%	100.0%
	% with Family Income	2.1%	4.4%	13.5%	37.5%	9.6%
Not Attending	N	576,610	467,447	257,792	145,802	1,447,651
	% with or without Day Care Attendance	39.8%	32.3%	17.8%	10.1%	100.0%
	% with Family Income	74.7%	69.8%	63.2%	53.1%	68.1%
Total	N	772,249	670,127	408,085	274,838	2,125,299
	% with or without Day Care Attendance	36.3%	31.5%	19.2%	12.9%	100.0%
	% with Family Income	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%

• Source: IBGE, Censo Demográfico 2010 – the authors’ own elaboration.

Table 6 allows to see that, in the group of children enrolled in public institutions, 23.2% live in households where the per capita monthly income is half a minimum wage or less; 25.8% have a per capita monthly income from half to one minimum wage; 23.4%, a per capita monthly income above one and below or equal to two minimum wages, and 9.5% are in households with a per capita income above two minimum wages.

As for the group of children attending private institutions, 37.5% are from households with a higher per capita income, and only 6.5% are from homes where the per capita monthly income is one minimum wage or less.

By observing the group of children who are not attending any institution (68%), we can see that the group with the lowest per capita income presents the highest rate of children outside the educational system: 74.7%. In turn, in the group with a per capita income above two minimum wages, 53% of children are not enrolled in early childhood education institutions. This means that the part of the population with less access to service for their children aged 0-3 in early childhood education institutions is the neediest, with less resources to invest in their children’s education.

Final Considerations

An important advance in Brazilian early childhood education was the right of children aged 0-3 to this education level, which reinforced actions around the educative proposal of institutions; this service was previously restricted to a small part of the population with access to kindergarten and other equivalent early childhood education institutions. At a national level, educational policies have been developed for the education of children who still have not entered primary education, by means of the following measures: the development of specific curricular and pedagogical proposals for the corresponding age group; the increase in the number of teachers, as well as the professionalization of early childhood education agents and assistants around educational questions; the investment in infrastructure; the functional definition of education spaces in order to promote educative environments to provide the type of care that is adequate to children’s physical, emotional and cognitive development, among other aspects.

Nevertheless, the expansion of early childhood education, particularly of day care, is still a challenge. In the state of São Paulo, the number of children served in early childhood education has increased from 2007 to 2013, with places in public institutions being offered by municipalities. The share of private institutions is smaller, particularly in preschool, but the participation of contracted entities is significant in the case of day care centers, accounting for 28.77% of places in 2013.

Although an expansion has taken place, by determining the ratio of existing enrollments in each stage of early childhood education to the size of the population in the corresponding age group, we can see that the rate of children served in preschool was kept at 90% from 2008 to 2012. With regard to day care, there has been a considerable expansion, although an insufficient one, as in 2012, approximately 38% of children aged 0-3 were enrolled in a day care center. By analyzing the age groups, it is the children older than 2 years who have more access to early childhood education, which means that one of the necessary measures is to expand the offer of enrollment for children under two years old.

Even though access to day care is not mandatory, the rate of children served seems insufficient, also when we analyze the characteristics of the demographic and socioeconomic profile of children aged 0-3, as we can see that the inequalities associated with color/race, income and family composition are replicated in their access to social infrastructure.

We found that, in the state of São Paulo, most children aged 0-3 – approximately 67% – are white, and around 80% of the places in private institutions are occupied by them, while black and brown children correspond to approximately 15% of enrollments. We also found that black children enrolled in early childhood education are fundamentally in public education, and there seems to be a great need for places on the part of families. This also occurs in the homes of children living with the mother or father without a spouse, as the rate of children not attending early childhood education institutions drops compared to other family structures which seem to have better conditions to take care of children, such as the presence of a spouse or relatives.

Finally, we found that 74.7% of the children living in homes with the lowest per capita household income are excluded from the educational system, a phenomenon that contributes to aggravate social inequalities and conditions of vulnerability, since the population with less access to service for their children aged 0-3 in early childhood education institutions is the neediest and with less resources to invest in their children’s education

This corroborates the denouncements of Fúlvia Rosemberg (2014), who, in her academic trajectory and her long struggle for the oppressed, studied the fact that the social segments with lowest income are also the ones who enjoy the benefits of social policies the least.

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• 1
  - The Observatório do Plano Nacional de Educação is an online platform that monitors indicators referring to the goals of the National Education Plan. It is supported by twenty organizations and can be accessed at http://www.observatoriodopne.org.br/
• 2
  - The Fundação Sistema Estadual de Análise de Dados (Seade) created the São Paulo Social Responsibility Index (IPRS), which aims to synthesize the situation of each municipality in the state of São Paulo in the dimensions of wealth, education and longevity. This model assumes that per capita income is not sufficient to indicate the life conditions of a population. Synthetic indicators were created for each IPRS dimension, allowing to hierarchize municipalities in the State of São Paulo according to wealth, longevity and education levels. For more information about the composition of indices, calculation methodology and municipality classification parameters, refer to the Seade Foundation (SÃO PAULO, 2013a, 2013b).
• 3
  - Coverage is the capacity to provide early childhood education considering the number of existing places and the size of the population in the corresponding age group.
• 4
  - The Demographic Census questionnaire contains a question about whether an individual attends school or day care, and provides as possible affirmative answers the following options: “1- Yes, public” and “2- Yes, private”. We assume respondents of the Demographic Census to understand a public day care center as the institution that serves families free of charge, and a private day care center as the one where families must pay a fee. In this perspective, enrollments in private law institutions (usually nonprofits) which are offered free of charge due to a contract agreement between the government and the institution, are likely to be placed in the former group, i.e., “Yes, public”.
• I-This article is a result of the research Educação Infantil no Estado de São Paulo: perfil e condições de atendimento (Early childhood education São Paulo state: profile and conditions of care), carried out from 2013 to 2015, and funded by Fundação Carlos Chagas. It counted on the participation of researcher Nelson Antonio Simão Gimenes and of statistician Miriam Bizzocchi, both from Fundação Carlos Chagas.

Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  Jan-Mar 2017

History

• Received
  06 Oct 2015
• Accepted
  13 Sept 2016