The National Forum   Donate   Your Account   On Line Opinion   Forum   Blogs   Polling   About   
The Forum - On Line Opinion's article discussion area



Syndicate
RSS/XML


RSS 2.0

Main Articles General

Sign In      Register

The Forum > Article Comments > The early years affect the later years so let's aim high > Comments

The early years affect the later years so let's aim high : Comments

By Susan Irvine, published 16/5/2013

There is a huge body of international research that shows every dollar invested in quality child care pays a dividend of $7 to $20 that doesn't have to be spent later in welfare, jails and hospitals.

  1. Pages:
  2. 1
  3. 2
  4. 3
  5. Page 4
  6. All
Dane
Its not all gambolling in the snow until you turn seven in Finland: they seem to have policies for early-childhood education that you would find abhorrent.

‘Publicly funded kindergartens and preschool in Finland are of quite high-quality, with quality standards roughly on par with those universal pre-k advocates seek for publicly funded pre-k programs in the United States. Kindergartens must have at least one adult for every seven children over age three, for every four children under age three, or for every two one-year-olds (infants under age one are rarely enrolled in kindergartens because Finland offers generous parental leave supports for parents in their child’s first year of life). One out of every three adults working in kindergartens holds a bachelor’s degree as a certified kindergarten teacher (in effect, the lead teacher in each classroom). http://www.newamerica.net/blog/early-ed-watch/2008/how-finland-educates-youngest-children-9029

And there’s more:
‘ The Act on Children’s Day Care came into force more than a quarter of a century ago, in1973. According to the Act, the obligation to organise day care for children under school age rests with the local authorities. The local authorities may provide day care either in day-care centres or in the form of family day care. Since 1990, parents have enjoyed an unconditional right to day care for children under three years of age either in municipal day care or by receiving child home care allowance in order to care for their children at home. As from 1996, the parents of all children under school age have enjoyed the right to a day-care place provided by their local authority. Since August 1997, it has been possible for families to receive private child-care allowance for providing their children with private care.’

The Finnish system of early childhood education and care (ECEC) policy may be described with the concept of EduCare. It fulfils both the day-care needs of small children and the educational and instructional perspective.’ http://www.oecd.org/finland/2476019.pdf
Posted by Candide, Monday, 20 May 2013 3:02:00 PM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
Candide,

I realise that for many families both parents working is just an economic reality today. I don't disagree with preschool care what I disagree with is the lastest fad about spending billions on training preschool teachers at university who end up teaching 3 year year olds to finger paint. It is just not necessary. And the way people seem to go on about EY education it's as if any child who misses out on their finger painting lesson is doomed for life.

I just don't buy it. At the end of the day it will push up prices which will end up pushing more women out of the workforce anyway. The industry warned Labor about that but in its best tradition of ideology über alles Labor went ahead anyway.
Posted by dane, Monday, 20 May 2013 8:46:32 PM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
  1. Pages:
  2. 1
  3. 2
  4. 3
  5. Page 4
  6. All

About Us :: Search :: Discuss :: Feedback :: Legals :: Privacy