There is an alternate view. There are many benefits of low enrollment ratio in EARLY childhood education. Reason - the early phase of childhood needs and open, innovative environment, extreme love and care of parents, little exposure to externalities etc. All these is available at homes.

While in schools the current system of schooling based on design of British colonial mindset kills creativity, eradicates love and emotions, forces child to think about the box and remain inside the box. 

...we need to evacuate children out of school in order to save them...

See 2-3 ted talks, i feel you would have already seen those... 

https://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity?language=en

https://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_how_to_escape_education_s_death_valley?language=en

https://www.ted.com/talks/sugata_mitra_build_a_school_in_the_cloud?language=en

Education is compulsory by law for all children and youth who reside in

Israel, from prekindergarten to 12th grade. However, the prekindergarten Education is relatively new (ages 3 to 4) and will be gradually implemented across the country. Child care is a primary prevention of risk factors and poor public service  could put at risk the well-being of children living in disadvantaged areas.

It depends what "low ratio" means in this context.  I assume you are referring to the proportion of children attending ECE relative to the number who will start grade 1?  

The problem with this is that children can end up very unevenly prepared for school, to the detriment of the entire system -- especially when kindergarten is also not an established part of a school system.  The skills they acquire in ECE play a big role in their readiness for school.  When teachers are faced with classrooms with some children experienced and well prepared for school,  and others not, it can complicate their job. This is especially the case when teachers are themselves not all that well trained or experienced.  Sometimes the focus ends up being mostly on those children who are well prepared for school, and others lag further and further behind.  In other cases, teachers focus on those who have had no ECE, and the better prepared children start getting very bored and losing interest in school.  But it can play out in various ways depending on the ratio of prepared to unprepared children and the capacity of teachers. If only a small number of children in a grade 1 classroom have had ECE, they often become valuable models for the rest of the children -- almost co-teachers with the teacher.  The teacher often gives them a lot of attention as her star pupils, and draws on them to work with other children.  In Nepal we found teachers really used this handful of children as a resource, and that timid new students fed off the confidence of the ECE graduates. .  

I like Ankur's answer. I think very young children "get" complexity, they're learning who their mother is, they're learning a language, and they know they are not in control of anything in experiencing their new life. Many school systems beat that innate ability out of them by saying there is only one correct answer to every question, force learning by rote, etc. No wonder kids are turned off to science and engineering by the time they become teenagers! So nurturing this understanding of complexity early, perhaps through some home schooling with astute parents, is better than a run-of-the-mill preschool.

Thanks, for all of your inspiring comments. Dear  Sheridan, I meant as low as 15 per cent. I donot know if this ratio is in line with your remarks considering teachers. It is a new insight for me.

Dear Ankur and B.E., your comments made me think again about ECE. I was taking it granted that all children attending ECE benefit and enjoy from it. I was looking at the issue from a social policy perspective.

In Turkey, ECE is not cumpolsory for any age and only a small number of public schools have preschool opportunities. This area is left mostly to private sector.

Do you think that ECE should be provided publicly at least for families who want their children to go preschool education but cannot afford private services?

Please also regard implications about women employment.

Sevilay; Yes, I do, as long as this is offered in the spirit of nurturing and helping to further develop complexity talents that the children already possess. Brian

In Canada, Early Years programs that include both children and their caregivers are available. This allows for children to explore a new space with the help of their parents, have exposure to other children and adults and develop a variety of new skills, while providing parents with a place to socialize and ask questions as well as bond with their children. Low enrolment means that programs such as these receive less funding making their purpose less effective. 

An interesting question. I think it is probably useful to start from an alternative standpoint, i.e. what beneficial effects does early education have for children? There is a good deal of useful research on this topic most notably the EPPE (Effective Provision of Pre School Eductaion) project in the UK. This research demonstrates that high quality early education has beneficial effects on children in terms of their social, emotional and educational development, and that these beneficial effects last well on into children's later school years. The obvious corollary of this would be that children not exposed to such early education have poorer development. In the UK virtually all 4 year olds now attend some form of early education whether in reception classes in primary schools or in pre schools. Equally a very high proportion of 3 year olds also attend early education and early education for the most disadvantaged 2 year olds is also now being trialled. The key factors are that such early education, in order to have such beneficial effects, must be of high quality and the child must attend regularly. It would also seem that early education has the most beneficial effects upon the most disadvantaged children.

Tony, in Canada (Ontario specifically) we have the "How Does Learning Happen" framework that guides our principles as Early Childhood Educators and helps direct the way in which we foster learning in young children. I am almost certain there is some great information in that particular piece of literature around why Early Learning and Early Education is beneficial.

The impact of poor public service can be expressed in economic, educational and social terms. From an economic point of view, it will affect employment rate and productivity (especially in women) and thus the Gross national product (a report just came out estimating the additional gross national product that is generated through child care in The Netherlands to an additional 0,5%).

In educational terms there is much robust evidence of the beneficial effects of high quality (only high quality) ECEC on later school achievements. The evidence is soo wide that it is virtually impossible to sum it up. See http://www.eiesp.org/site/pages/view/97-early-childhood-education-and-care-ecec-in-promoting-educational-attainment-including-social-development-of-children-from-disadvantaged-backgrounds-and-in-fostering-social-inclusion.html for a European overview.

From a social perspective, there is equally robust evidence that ECEC fosters social cohesion, social support and in doing so, it has a profound social impact on societies, especially in places marked by socio-economic and cultural diversity.

In any ways it would be a loss to the nation whether it is economic, social or educational . children are the future asset of any nation so without a strong and productive asset no country can grow. Especially in India research evidence shows that ECE contributes in increasing retention rate and girl child enrollment,  decreasing dropout rate,  and in long terms in the economic development of the country,

So, low enrollment ratio in ECE may lead to increased dropouts in elementary education, low retention rate, low girl child enrollment and ultimately poor socio-economic development of the nation.

Reasons can be -

ECE is not offered in schools that do offer a full five grades, It is also not covered in other than urban areas (remote, rural communities are limited)

http://www.in.undp.org/content/dam/laopdr/docs/Legal%20Framework/UNDP_LA_CAR_2012_2015.pdf