{"id":54911,"date":"2026-02-24T15:08:23","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T12:08:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eliamep.gr\/?p=54911"},"modified":"2026-03-02T14:38:28","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T11:38:28","slug":"anaxiopoiites-prooptikes-i-periptosi-tis-proscholikis-agogis-stin-ellada","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eliamep.gr\/en\/hidden-potential-childcare-in-greece\/","title":{"rendered":"Hidden potential: Childcare in Greece"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"the-content\"><p><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>High-quality early childhood education and care helps children\u2019s early development and positively affects educational, social and economic outcomes in later life for the children involved and for society at large. Conversely, the lack of affordable high-quality childcare creates deficits in abilities and skills, including soft ones, which raise social costs and drive down productivity.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Compulsory pre-school education in Greece has recently been extended, now starting at age 4. Nevertheless, participation in early childhood education and care at a younger age remains below the European average. Limited availability of affordable subsidised places is a key obstacle to raising enrolment in childcare centres.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>The Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) offered Member States generous funding for investing in childcare. This is especially important in countries like Greece, where female employment\u2013 though rising \u2013 remains low, which reflects the difficulties Greek women face in reconciling career and family responsibilities.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Greece 2.0, The National Recovery and Resilience Plan, included measures to improve childcare quality and expand access. While some initiatives began, most were later abandoned, highlighting the fragility of reforms amid institutional bottlenecks.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Despite setbacks, ECEC has gained some visibility in national debates. Yet without a long-term fiscal commitment and a coherent national strategy, it will be difficult to expand access for children under the age of 2, improve quality, and ensure equity in a sector that has historically been underfunded and neglected.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Read <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eliamep.gr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Policy-paper-199-Papalexatou-EN-final-1.pdf\">here<\/a> in pdf the policy paper by <strong>Chryssa Papalexatou<\/strong>, Research Fellow, ELIAMEP.<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>High-quality early childhood education and care helps children\u2019s early development and positively affects educational, social and economic outcomes in later life for the children involved and for society at large. Conversely, the lack of affordable high-quality childcare creates deficits in abilities and skills, including soft ones, which raise social costs and drive down productivity. Compulsory [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":54912,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[476,492],"tags":[],"program":[27],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eliamep.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54911"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eliamep.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eliamep.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eliamep.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eliamep.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54911"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.eliamep.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54911\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":55022,"href":"https:\/\/www.eliamep.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54911\/revisions\/55022"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eliamep.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54912"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eliamep.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54911"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eliamep.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54911"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eliamep.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54911"},{"taxonomy":"program","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eliamep.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/program?post=54911"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}