The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development was commissioned by the Scottish government to complete a review of Curriculum for Excellence, including the broad general education (BGE), which runs from the age of 3 to 15.

Its report, published on 21 June, confirms that BGE includes early level, and therefore includes early years provision.

However, it will be concerning to many that the report focused almost exclusively on CfE as provided by teachers within schools.

Tes Scotland‘s coverage of the OECD report on Curriculum for Excellence:

The main messages: OECD review paves way for qualifications overhaul

The government response: SQA to be replaced, education secretary reveals

On testing in primary: Replace standardised tests with sample survey

On secondary assessment: How should Scotland change its exams?

On teacher workload: Reduce contact time to realise curriculum goals

The report makes it clear that whilst not compulsory, uptake of early years provision is almost universal, yet provides no rationale for the omission of consideration of early years provision and the critical role of practitioners within the early years profession in curriculum making.

This omission is notable for a number of reasons.

Curriculum for Excellence: Early years excluded from OECD review

During the past decade, the early years landscape in Scotland has been the subject of increasing investment and scrutiny. The policy direction in Scotland in recent times has been strongly influenced by a growing body of research that now recognises the importance of early childhood experiences to lifelong cognitive, social and economic outcomes.

This discourse has strongly underpinned the Scottish government’s position in promoting high-quality early years provision as an effective vehicle for early intervention and improving outcomes for children and families.

Secondly, in Scotland there has been an incremental increase in the number of annual hours of free, flexible early learning and childcare (ELC) that parents and carers are able to access for their children.

Between 2007 and 2020, entitlement to funded ELC provision has risen substantially, from 412.5 hours per year to 1,140 hours. Given the ongoing and significant investment made by the Scottish government in recent years - in capital investment in new buildings, in additional student places in colleges and universities to enable recruitment to the profession, and in the remuneration costs of an increased early years profession - the omission of any consideration of the role of the early years profession in providing Curriculum for Excellence at early level is surprising.

In addition, a key aim of CfE is to enable seamless transitions for children across stages in their learning journeys. Whilst the transition from early years setting to primary school is undoubtedly an important change for children, the transition from the family and home learning environment to early years setting is often overlooked. Understanding how effective transitions are supported for the very youngest children in our education system is critical to enabling the CfE principle of “progression”.

The implications of this omission must be reflected upon. Firstly, useful learning has been lost by not including the early years sector in the OECD review.

Early years pedagogy is closely aligned with the active, experiential and inter-disciplinary learning approaches espoused by CfE. Assessment processes in early years are underpinned by holistic judgements made collectively by professionals in effective partnerships with parents and carers and with children themselves. The Early Years Collaborative was the highly successful precursor to the Children and Young People’s Improvement Collaborative and Regional Improvement Collaboratives.

Secondly, language has power. Whilst there is some limited use in the report of more inclusive terms such as “practitioners”, “educators” and “education settings”, more frequent are references to “schools”, “teachers” and “pupils”. Early years professionals will justifiably question why their role in providing a key stage of Curriculum for Excellence has been rendered invisible.

Lastly, the report privileges the teaching profession in its recommendations, suggesting more support is needed to help build and sustain professional capital amongst teachers. No consideration is given to the experiences of the early years profession - a profession that has historically experienced lack of parity of esteem with their colleagues in the teaching profession.

To say that early years professionals will be disappointed that a valuable opportunity has been missed to include them in building much-needed professional capital is an understatement. They will wish to understand the reasons why they are not to be afforded equity with their professional colleagues.

The report suggests a change of name for Curriculum for Excellence to Curriculum for Excellence and Equity. To achieve this, the principle of equity must be extended to all professionals involved in curriculum making - focusing firstly on levelling up of professional capital for the early years profession to match that of the teaching profession, before taking forward measures for all to improve this further.

This report - commissioned by the Scottish government and developed and published by a highly respected international organisation - has substantial power to influence future policy direction in Scotland. That it excludes a key part of a child’s learning journey in the broad general education, and the professionals who lead this, will be concerning to all involved in children’s education.

Recognising, making visible and including the totality of the profession who are involved in providing CfE, and hearing the voices of the youngest children for whom CfE is intended to reach, would be a welcome first step in taking forward the OECD report recommendations.

Joyce Leslie is a lecturer in education at the University of the West of Scotland and a former early years centre head