We Must Give Our Children the Opportunity to Learn; OPINION: Early Years Education Policy Key Now to Our Nation's Future

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Byline: BRANWEN LLEWELYN JONES

THERE is emerging, as a result of the initiatives of the National Assembly for Wales, an increasing difference for the better between the attitude in Wales and that in England. This difference is clearly reflected in policy.

Jane Davidson gets to the heart of the matter when she states in her foreword to The Learning Country that "we are at a turning point in education and lifelong learning in Wales."

That lifelong learning is grounded in the early years, and it is the quality and nature of education and care at this stage which will determine not only our children's, but our nation's future.

In the present context of rapid social change, the pattern of childhood is …