Challenges of Early Childhood education as a children’s right: analysis of the history and legislation of the 1980’s and 1990’s

This article seeks to analyze the role of Early Childhood education in the period between the end of the Brazilian military dictatorship until the enactment of the current Lei de Diretrizes e Bases da Educa o Nacional (National Educational Bases and Guidelines Law – LDB). This period represents a major step in the history of Early Childhood Education due to the development of documents that were essential to the acknowledgment of children’s rights, such as the Constitui o Federal (Federal Constitution – 1988), the Estatuto da Crian a e do Adolescente (Child and Adolescent Statute – ECA) (1990) and the Política Nacional de Educa o Infantil (National Policy for Early Childhood Education – PNEI) (1994). All of these documents were used as basis for this study. The constitutional text recognized children as citizens, while the ECA has strengthened this commitment from the part of the State. Similarly, the PNEI has defi ned the suitable conditions for children’s overall development. However, the universal implementation of a quality service progresses slowly, since the specifi city of this educational modality is yet to be fully recognized.