Peer-reviewed article
The quality of early childhood education and care services in Greece
Christina Megalonidou ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This study examined the quality of early childhood education and care services for children under 3 years old in North Greece. Researchers assessed 131 classrooms across nonprofit and for-profit centers using the ITERS-R quality assessment scale. The findings indicated that the average quality of these services was mediocre. The study addresses a gap in research on early childhood care quality in Greece, which had been only marginally documented.
Key points
- Quality of early childhood education and care for children under 3 in Greece has been only marginally researched
- Study assessed 131 classrooms across nonprofit and for-profit centers in North Greece
- ITERS-R scale was used to measure quality of early childhood services
- Results showed mediocre average quality across assessed services
- High-quality early education experiences are critical for children's growth, family work capacity, and societal health
Limitations
The study focused only on North Greece, so results may not represent the quality of services across all of Greece. The document does not specify what factors contributed to the mediocre quality ratings or provide recommendations for improvement.
Abstract
Abstract High-quality early education and care experiences are critical for children’s growth and development, families’ ability to work, and the future health of society. In Greece, with regard to research for children under 3 years of age in early childhood education and care services, the issue of quality has been only marginally researched. The lack of available information on the quality of childcare services has been widely documented. The purpose of this study was to investigate the quality of early childhood education and care services in North Greece. Nonprofit and for-profit centers (one hundred and thirty-one classrooms) for children under 3 participated in this study. For quality assessment, we used the ITERS-R scale (Infant/Toddler Environment Rating Scale-Revised). Results suggested the existence of mediocre average quality.