Page 2423 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 13 August 2014
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This is one of the challenges that comes out of the Productivity Commission’s draft report. They want to claw back the fantastic work that the national quality framework has already done in recognising the important work that educators and carers do in this sector in providing the best start for our children’s ongoing learning and education.
The national quality framework introduced a one-to-four educator-to-child ratio for children from birth to two years old. This was an increase of educators from one to five. The Productivity Commission has suggested that perhaps these ratios need to be revisited. I think that would be a shame for families in the ACT and across the country who are making a decision about putting their children into early childhood education and the effect on their education and care that an increased ratio of children to educators would have.
Finally, I note that the ACT Education and Training Directorate’s submission to the Productivity Commission, which Mr Doszpot could not find, supports the objectives of a national body framework. It states:
Large change management can always be seen as burdensome, however this perception is anticipated to decrease as providers become more familiar with the Framework and practices begin to be embedded.
Finally, it goes on to state:
It is important that the best interests of children are at the forefront of decision making about early childhood education and care. The Education and Training Directorate welcomes measures that support affordability and access for ACT families without compromising outcomes for children.
The submission also goes further to talk about universal access in preschool education. It states:
With the introduction of 15 hours of preschool through the National Partnership on Early Childhood Education (Universal access), the demand for preschool education is strong.
Ms Burch has already just referred to the 4,500 preschool children, and growing, who attend preschool education in the ACT. The funding, however, for the national partnership agreement was not extended to independent schools and long day care services. The submission goes on to state:
The long day care sector in the ACT is keen to be supported to offer 15 hours of free preschool education, which would provide working families with more flexible options for education and care in the year prior to primary school.
The submission that the Education and Training Directorate made actually goes further and calls for even more than the 15 hours of universal access to preschool and suggests that it be extended to long day care and independent schools.
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