|
The Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) has released a new report which finds the state of national early childhood care and education services to be insufficient, fragmented, under funded and inconsistent. Findings Dr Alison Elliott, author of Early childhood education: Pathways to quality and equity for all children, argues that despite evidence of the benefits of early childhood education, many children experience education of varying quality, or none at all. Dr Elliott’s review comes in the wake of the September 2006 OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) report Starting Strong II, which highlighted that Australia was spending less than all other first-world countries on preschool and that our kindergarten teachers are the worst paid and least trained. Recommendations ACER’s Early childhood education report calls for the development of a long-term action plan to implement an integrated, well-funded and regulated national system of education. ‘It is time to commit to national professional standards and guidelines, profession training, and good salaries and working conditions in the hope of securing the quality of early childhood educators in the decades ahead’, says Dr Elliott. Early childhood education: Pathways to quality and equity for all children [PDF] is available online. Dr Alison Elliott is also the editor of Early Childhood Australia’s Every Child magazine. Early Childhood Australia’s position Early Childhood Australia raised similar concerns in the president’s report, of the ECA 2005–06 Annual Report: ‘A major theme of Early Childhood Australia’s advocacy in 2006 with government, key officials and in the media has been to argue for policy-makers to accept the implications of evidence which shows that improving the structural quality of children’s services is fundamental to good outcomes for children … Structural quality in children’s services leads to warm, sensitive, stimulating and consistent provider–child interactions.’
‘Some of the issues that are currently facing the early years of schools are similar to those facing the birth-to-five age group. Specialist early childhood qualifications underwrite effective early childhood leadership and appropriate pedagogy in the first year of schools in the same way as they do for birth to five-year-olds.’ The ECA 2005–06 Annual Report [PDF] is available online. Likewise, Early Childhood Australia’s chief executive officer Pam Cahir spoke at the Country Children’s Services Association of NSW 2006 conference, on the value to services in Australia of taking a ‘systems approach’. She concluded emphasising that ‘We have to take charge and make the changes that are necessary to build a high-quality, sustainable system.’ Pam Cahir’s full presentation, A systems approach to the delivery of children’s services in this country - does it have anything to offer? is available online. Further reading Related news articles on the Early Childhood Australia website:
March 2006 – 'A cheaper, simpler solution to many social ills is staring us in the face'
Feb 2006 – Nobel-winning economist: Invest more in early childhood
Dec 2005 – The case for investment in early childhood
If you liked this article, you can 'social bookmark' it with others who might be searching for good content on early childhood. This means you can share your favourite webpages with others, or just keep an online list of your bookmarks so you can access them on any computer.
Read more about social bookmarks
|
|
