Early Childhood: Care and Education Modalities in Latin America

Abstract

Since the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1989, Latin American countries have developed policies, plans or strategies to guarantee the rights of early childhood and its integral development, thus, different modalities, programs and care services were created, which tend to present problems in terms of their approach (assistance or educational), reach (universal or focused) and quality. To describe the modalities of early childhood care in Latin America. This work was carried out under a qualitative approach, with a descriptive level of documentary bibliographic type. The selected documents were obtained from Google Scholar, indexed scientific journals and official websites of countries and international organizations. Only official documents and reports, scientific articles, and books with ISSN or DOI were included, and thesis works hosted in repositories were excluded. It is determined that Latin American countries have developed their own policies, plans or strategies that seek to provide care and education to early childhood, for which they have developed programs and services that are within the main modalities identified: formal education, Child Care and Development Centers, attention in the family and community and restitution of violated rights, They differ in each country because they adapt to their needs, reality and social, cultural, political and economic characteristics. The countries analyzed have established modalities to attend to early childhood to guarantee the right of children and their integral development. However, the services offered still must solve difficulties in terms of their coverage, access, and quality, so, at a general level, greater articulation between the instances that oversee executing these services is necessary.