Global investment in early childhood education is a key policy to address social and economic disadvantage for children and families. Since 1975, India has one of the world’s largest provisions for free, public early childhood education, under a program called the Integrated Child Development Scheme. However, almost half of the children in India still do not have access to early childhood education and the reasons behind this inequality are largely unidentified. This study investigates the nature of factors affecting demand and access to preschool and how parental decisions may be influenced by parents’ education and other socio-economic factors, societal status, and awareness of the value of preschool attendance. The analyses draw on survey data collected from 1373 households in two districts in West Bengal with data gathered through extensive fieldwork in 2015. A key factor affecting preschool non-attendance was found to be lower levels of parent education. This explained the largest variation in the data. It is important to increase parental awareness on the value of preschool, as well as to increase the availability of early childhood education in rural, as well as in urban districts, in India.

中文翻译：

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印度幼儿教育的需求和机会不平等

全球对幼儿教育的投资是解决儿童和家庭的社会和经济劣势的关键政策。自 1975 年以来，根据一项名为“儿童综合发展计划”的计划，印度拥有世界上最大的免费公共幼儿教育机构之一。然而，印度近一半的儿童仍然无法接受早期教育，这种不平等背后的原因在很大程度上是未知的。本研究调查了影响学前教育需求和入学机会的因素的性质，以及父母的教育和其他社会经济因素、社会地位和对学前教育价值的认识如何影响父母的决定。分析利用了从西孟加拉邦两个地区的 1373 个家庭收集的调查数据以及 2015 年通过广泛的实地调查收集的数据。发现影响学前班缺勤的一个关键因素是父母教育水平较低。这解释了数据的最大变化。重要的是要提高父母对学前教育价值的认识，并增加印度农村和城市地区提供幼儿教育的机会。