La-Rel Easter
Attending kindergarten has a significant impact on reading proficiency in adulthood—and the differences in competence between those who attended an early childhood education institution and those who did not have increased. This is shown in the recently released detailed reports of the OECD’s PIAAC survey, often referred to as the “adult PISA.” The length of kindergarten attendance also plays a role in later reading skills.
The results of the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) were published in December 2024. At that time, it became clear that in Austria the share of 16- to 65-year-olds with reading difficulties had nearly doubled to 29 percent since the last survey in 2011. Compared with the other 30 countries participating in PIAAC, Austria scored significantly below the OECD average in reading (254 vs. 260 points)—in 2011 it had scored above the OECD average.
In an expert report, researchers now analyze the results in detail. Adults who did not attend kindergarten show, on average, lower reading scores (236 points) than those who spent one year in an early childhood education institution (267 points). With three years of kindergarten, the score rises to 279 points.
Differences increased
These differences have grown significantly since the 2011 survey: at that time, the reading score of adults without kindergarten attendance was still 260 (much higher than today), while the score of those who attended kindergarten for three years remained at 279 points, unchanged from the current survey. In 2011, there were practically no differences in reading competence based on the length of kindergarten attendance—it made no difference whether respondents had spent one, two, or three years in kindergarten (as long as they attended at all).
However, it should be noted that kindergarten attendance increased significantly between the two surveys: in 2011 almost one-third of 16- to 65-year-olds had not attended kindergarten, while in the most recent survey eleven years later, only one-fifth had not. The duration of attendance also increased.
As a result, the category “no kindergarten attendance” is now “more strongly linked to socially disadvantaged groups—for example, children from families with low educational or socioeconomic backgrounds,” write Eduard Stöger and Felix Deichmann of Statistics Austria in an analysis. “‘No kindergarten attendance’ increasingly points to a specific, socially disadvantaged subgroup—and thus acquires a changed social meaning.”
Lack of kindergarten carries through the education career
The absence of kindergarten attendance continues throughout one’s educational path: people who attended Middle School (formerly Hauptschule) were significantly more likely not to have attended kindergarten (24.9 percent) than those who completed the lower level of an academic secondary school (AHS) at 11.3 percent.
There is also a connection between the parents’ level of education and the length of kindergarten attendance. Individuals whose parents have higher educational attainment tend to spend longer periods in kindergarten. Conversely, the share of people without kindergarten attendance is significantly higher when parents have only completed compulsory schooling—more than half (51.5 percent)—compared with only eight percent among parents with at least a Matura.
