Early childhood education and care curricula in Europe 2025/2026
An insight paper based on Eurydice’s System-level indicators
This paper focuses on an essential part of high-quality ECEC systems – the curricula that shape what young children learn and experience, from setting developmental goals to proposing age-appropriate activities.
It provides a concise overview of ECEC curricula across Europe, showing which countries have an integrated approach covering the entire ECEC phase and where gaps remain. In 2025/2026, a quarter of European education systems still have no curricula for childcare settings that typically enrol children under the age of 3.
The paper provides a complete country-by-country list of ECEC curricula, with titles and links to the full documents, and highlights recent policy developments. Common priorities emerging across Europe include a stronger focus on basic skills and cross-curricular themes such as digital education, sustainability and citizenship, alongside more child-centred approaches, inclusion, well-being and children’s rights.
The insight paper has been written using the data from the system level indicators Early Childhood Education and Care.




