Thematic and system evaluations

Thematic evaluations of early childhood education focus on some content package or theme. System evaluations may also study a whole education system or some part of it. The evaluation target may be education policy and its implementation or the renewal and development processes of the education system. Evaluations may target one educational level, or cover several educational levels.

A multidisciplinary planning and evaluation group will be formed for the evaluation project. The evaluation will use inclusive and varied methods. The key is to take into account the perspectives of various stakeholders, critical and profound study of the phenomenon to be evaluated and to get a com­prehensive understanding of the evaluation target.

Newest publication:

• Children’s participation in planning and evaluating early childhood education and care – Summaries (2022)

Ongoing evaluations

• Implementation of local ECEC curricula at day-care centres and in family day care

The evaluation project examines how the processes of reforming the local curricula for early childhood education and care (ECEC) have been realised. The evaluation provides information on how the introduction of local curricula has been realised after 1 August 2022.

• Evaluation of education in the ECEC sector

The National Education Evaluation Centre is conducting an evaluation in the early childhood education and care in 2022–2023. This evaluation is part of the National Plan for Education Evaluation for 2020–2023. The evaluation focuses on training programmes in universities, universities of applied sciences (UAS) and vocational training.

• Leadership in early childhood education: The current state, strengths and areas of development

The purpose of the evaluation is to examine the management and leadership of early childhood education and its structures as a part of the quality management of ECEC organizers and private service providers. The evaluation advances the realization of equality for overall growth, development and learning of children in early childhood education. The aim of the evaluation is to benefit the national level of the early childhood education management system as well as local level stakeholders by providing information on the current state of the early childhood education leadership system and its strengths and areas for development.

Finished evaluations (the links will be updated)

• Evaluation of the experiment for free of charge early childhood education and care for five-year-olds (2018-2021)
• Key figures of ECEC management – Statistical report (2021)
• Pedagogical continuums and joy of expression! Pedagogy for five-year-olds and the current state of skills and art education in early childhood education and care (2021)
• Every-day quality in early childhood education and care – ECEC curriculum implementation at day-care centres and in family day-care (2019)
• Implementation evaluation of the 2016 national core curriculum for early childhood education and care – Deployment and contents of early childhood education and care curricula (2018)