additional funding of million was allocated to the department of children and youth affairs in for early years care and education an increase of on the allocation however in the netherlands almost all children from age have a legal entitlement to free access to preprimary education in school settings age corresponds to the first year of enrolment in these settings children are enrolled in preschool education in day care centres and playgroups at age however a distinction should be drawn between preprimary and early childhood educational development isced a general pattern emerges when both programmes are compared with the share of public spending tending to be smaller in early childhood educational development isced in out of the countries with available data for both categories