Geneva - Only Sweden, out of the world's developed countries, managed to meet all of the UN's Children's Fund's 10 benchmarks for early childhood care and education, a report on Thursday showed. A look at the 24 countries belonging to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and Slovenia, ranked the five Nordic countries and France at the top of the list.
They were the only ones to have allotted a full 1 per cent of GDP to early childhood services.
Seven countries, including the United States, complied with three or less of the benchmarks.
Some standards UNICEF looked for were laws allowing parents to take a full year of leave at 50 per cent of salary and health care for youngsters, including programmes for the disabled.
The list also included practices ensuring at least 80 per cent of child care staff were trained and a ratio of no more than 15 children for each staff member in pre-school education.
While nations got points for subsidizing early education services for sections of the population, UNICEF warned that childcare was becoming increasingly popular in the rich countries and could have negative side affects.
"Today's rising generation in the countries of the OECD is the first in which a majority are spending a large part of their early childhoods not in their own homes with their own families but in some form of childcare," the report, The Child Care Transition, said.
Neuroscience research quoted indicated the youngest need stable relationships that both stimulate their minds and show them affection, which was in line with social scientists' beliefs.
"Loving, stable, secure, stimulating and rewarding relationships with family and caregivers in the earliest months and years of life," UNICEF wrote, "are critical for almost all aspects of a child's development."
Early education and interaction with other children could have positive results and may help balance out gaps between those born into rich families and those who have more difficult backgrounds, but the long-term psychological affects of being detached from parents might be severe.
The more time spent in childcare, particularly before the age of three, increased the infant's or toddler's risk of mental illness, the report said.
The turn to childcare was a sign of more women getting into the workforce, along with the economic pressures of modern life, as two- incomes are generally needed to sustain a family.
Also, early education is seen as a tool for future advancement and governments tend to see childcare as a way to reverse demographic declines while boosting production levels.
In the "report card" issued with the report, England was ranked in the exact middle, Germany met four of the benchmarks along with Japan and South Korea, while the United States and Switzerland achieved three. Australia met two and Canada and Ireland tied for last, having each complied with only one standard.
