UNIVERSAL PUBLIC EDUCATION recommended for 2-5 y ar olds
A new national report on early childhood education and care recommends the expansion of public education to all children aged two to fi ve.
The Early Years Study 3 calls for high-quality, affordable early education that would also be voluntary. Parents would decide if and how often their children would attend.
The study points to a large body research that shows children who attend quality preschool programs are better prepared for school, acquiring the social and emotional skills that are needed to focus and learn. They also tend to do better throughout school.
The authors of the Early Years Study — the third released since 1999 — see early education as part of the existing public education system. “We have this wonderful asset of public education in Canada,” notes Kerry McCuaig, a lead author of the study and a University of Toronto-based expert on early childhood policy. “We have a well-developed infrastructure with great facilities and human resources, and it’s largely underutilized.”
Canada has a “hodge-podge” of private and public preschool programs, including day cares, nursery schools, pre-kindergartens, junior kindergartens, drop-ins and family resource centers. This patchwork programming is ineffi cient and inadequate, the report says. It fails to address the developmental needs of many young children and child care needs of many working parents.
By kindergarten, more than one in four children are developmentally vulnerable, says the study, citing Early Development Instrument (EDI) Canada-wide results. Children who struggle in kindergarten are more likely to fail in school.
As adults, they are more likely to experience poor physical and mental health, addictions, and diffi culties in personal relationships and in fi nding well-paying, skilled jobs.
“This is an indication that we are failing many young children in their early years,” says McCuaig. “It also shows that many parents are having to make do when it comes to child care. That is what happens when you have to make do.”
Universal early education does not mean pushing academic learning on preschoolers. The report recommends a play-based curriculum delivered by trained early childhood educators.
“This is not about putting young children behind desks,” explains Jane Bertrand, lead researcher for the report. “It’s about providing young children with safe, stimulating environments to learn and explore, overseen by trained educators. The years two to fi ve are a period of very rapid, critical brain development, which involves planning, thinking ahead, getting along with others and learning many other skills essential to succeeding in the world. Children really do seem to benefi t from being with other children in guided play situations during this period of time.”
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UNIVERSAL PUBLIC EDUCATION recommended for 2-5 year olds The report envisions the expansion of
schools into family-
oriented, community-based centers with broad-based supports for families and children. Pilot projects in Ontario (First Duty) and Saskatchewan (Schools Plus), and in Britain and Australia (Community Schools), have demonstrated the effectiveness of such an approach.
Canada has fallen behind other industrialized countries in investing in the early years, the report says, partly blaming concerns over cost. Early year investment is sound economic policy, however, the report says. Cost analyses of Quebec’s public early childhood system show, for example, that programs can pay for themselves. Ambivalent attitudes towards the roles of family and government have also been Steps ECMap Newsletter Late Winter – January 2012 a stumbling block. Highly charged debates ignore the reality that 70 per cent of mothers with children aged fi ve and under work outside the home and that most families rely on some form of child care.
In summing up the report, McCuaig says: “The key message that we’d like people to take away is that the early years make a difference and that intelligent public policy can make a difference for children in their earliest years – and throughout their lives.” Kerry McCuaig
To download a copy of Early Years Study 3, please go to http://
earlyyearsstudy.ca/media/uploads/report-pdfs-en/eys3_en_full_ report.pdf
Steps ECMap Newsletter - 3 - Late Winter – January 2012 – reprinted with permission from Early Child Development Mapping (ECMap)
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