Many countries provided child care for essential workers during the pandemic, but top performers went farther to support both providers and parents during this unprecedented interruption to childcare and work.
Canada, for example, provided CAN$625 million (US$475.5 million) in federal funds to subsidize child care centers across the country so that they could remain financially viable and reopen safely as parents return to work. Ontario added a CAN$147 million (US$111.8 million) in provincial funding to help pay for protective equipment and increased staffing for providers, as well as to compensate providers with reduced attendance. Japan and Korea chose a different route and subsidized additional family leave time so parents with young children could stay home to care for children who could not attend childcare or school. And Singapore offset child center fees by 50 percent to provide relief to parents and to ensure that centers could remain in business.
Learn more about early childhood education and care in top-performing education systems in NCEE’s study, The Early Advantage.
