over one third of children still do not benefit from two years of preschool though this has been compulsory since and very few children under the age of have access to care centres or other forms of public assistance those services that are available focus primarily on health and nutrition and give inadequate attention to fostering the essential cognitive language emotional and social skills that children need to develop in the early years children from poor families who are most likely to face a weak home learning environment are the least likely to access public services