the gap is larger in countries that track students early have larger percentages of students in selective schools and are more likely to transfer lessable students to other schools there is now a wealth of evidence including longitudinal studies that investing in ecec yields high returns in boosting cognitive and noncognitive skills as well as later success in the labour market especially for disadvantaged children heckman lazzari and vandenbroeck children from socioeconomically disadvantaged families in belgium and slovenia for example are given priority access to ecec oecd b