Making Choices in Early Childhood Education a Gamble

Making Choices in Early Childhood Education a Gamble

MyECE.org.nz

Monday 3rd February 2014

Wellington – Parents are being urged to reduce the gamble with the quality of their child’s care by being more discerning with their choice of early childhood education centres.

A leading expert in quality early childhood education, Dr Sarah Farquhar says that as parents return to work after having a baby and need childcare or seek an early start to their child’s education they must do their home-work first and go for a service that has high standards of practice and ethics.

“Relying on strangers to take good care of their toddler is a gamble that thousands of families take.

“Some ECE services tick more boxes for quality and are more focused on excellence than others,” Dr Farquhar says.

In many services where quality is poor, the Education Review Office has previously reported that managers and educators may believe their service is operating well.

“External monitoring and quality assurance is light in the early childhood education industry that is now part of our country’s infrastructure - as vital as the health system, roads, and airports.”

While early childhood services must meet minimum standards for staffing and equipment, among other things, services are not regularly inspected by the Ministry of Education. Parents are not informed about the history and any problems with a service as details of any inspections and the outcomes of investigations into any complaints are not made public by the Ministry.

For many children ERO reviewers may not visit their service while they are attending as ERO is stretching its review timeline out to 4 years for services considered to be managing well, Dr Farquhar says.

So how is it possible to know that a child is in the best of hands?

To assist parents with knowledge of the best early childhood services,MyECE.org.nz, is announcing the first round of early childhood services to be nationally recognised as ECE Services of Excellence.

The centres are:

• The Ole Schoolhouse in Rotorua

• Kidspace in Napier

• Kids Castle in Dannevirke

These services are owner-operated early childcare centres that rate highly in having features important for quality for children, acknowledge the rights of children, support a code of ethical conduct for ECE services, and overall demonstrate a commitment to striving for excellence.

High performing community-owned centres, parent-led centres, home-based agencies, and hospital ECE services and others will also be named in further rounds.

“We are all keen to see every child enjoy the best early childcare and education and it is encouraging for the sector when services are acknowledged for doing well”, says Dr Farquhar.

Now through www.myece.org.nz parents can find out about service features and standards that affect the quality of children’s care, learning and happiness.

“This will help alleviate parents’ worries and help make better choices for childcare for thousands of families.”

The stories of each of the first 3 ECE Services of Excellence can be viewed online at http://www.myece.org.nz/early-childhood-education-academy-excellence/ece-service

ENDS

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