 |
On Saturday morning, the document “Early Childhood Education and Care: A National Policy” was published by the Ministry of Education Youth and Employment. This is the result of work by a purposely set up working group, chaired by Dr Valerie Sollars, which focused on the sector.
The drawing up and publication of a national policy for early childhood education and care signals the acknowledgement for and awareness of this distinct and crucial phase of early childhood.
At the launch of the document Education Minister Louis Galea said that “While being satisfied that early years provision has been locally available and accessible for a reasonable length of time in both the private and the state sector, we are now more conscious of and sensitive to the impact that good, quality education and care services can have on children, their families and society,” said Dr. Galea who added that young children deserve the best education and care as early childhood is not only a distinct phase in the life of a human being but it has the potential to shape the future adult.
Louis Galea said that the new education law, which will start being discussed this week in Parliament, makes very important provisions to set in motion a process of quality assurance in education. A Quality and Standards in Education Directorate (QSED) will be set up precisely to ensure that the whole process of educating a child is of the highest standard and that the outputs of the human and the financial resources invested in our children result in quality education for all. “The QSED will be responsible for ensuring the implementation of the Sollars recommendations on staff qualifications and licensing of kindergarten (KG) centres. Under the new College system all KG centres will be networked in clusters as part of the Colleges. We are working very closely with Minister Dolores Cristina on issues of standards, licensing and regulations of child care centres to ensure that in all child and KG centres the development of the personality, creativity, talents and intellectual potential of each and every child is boosted by the best practices and results possible. A first class early start for our children will be the best first step for all children to succeed,” insisted Louis Galea.
Dr. Galea said that now that the document was published, a period of consultation will follow in order to obtain feedback from all interested parties and the stakeholders in general. The Document will have a wide circulation and copies may be obtained from the Ministry of Education in Floriana whilst digital copies of the document are available on www.education.gov.mt/ece.htm. Feedback should be sent in writing to Ms Micheline Sciberras, Director of Policy Development and Project Implementation, Ministry of Education Youth and Employment, Great Siege Road, Floriana, by e-mail on communications.moed@gov.mt or by filling in the feedback form on the website.
The working group which prepared the report was headed by Dr. Valerie Sollars, Senior Lecturer and Head of the Primary Department at the University of Malta Faculty of Education, and had as members Ms. Monica Attard, Education Officer in charge of early years education at the Division of Education, Mr. Brian Craus, Head of a state primary school (¯ejtun Primary A), and Chiara Borg, from the Ministry of the Family and Social Solidarity. The policy was drawn up on the basis of international research and practices together with evidence, data and experience from the local context. The document is divided into three main sections:
Section 1 provides a brief overview of policy-related issues and recommendations drawn up by the OECD in conclusion of a review of early childhood services in twelve countries. This section is complimented by detailed information about early childhood education and care services in five countries. The literature emphasises the contributions of the family, the education sector and society’s impact on the development of an ECEC policy.
Section 2 focuses on ECEC in the local context including child day-care services for the under threes, Kindergarten provision for three and four-year-old children and the first years in compulsory, primary schooling. Apart from mapping the historical development of the sector, data are included about the types of provision available and the qualifications of staff currently employed in the field, their pre and in-service training opportunities. Information about the methodology and practices, which are culturally accepted and promoted, transition issues across different services and the current situation concerning evaluation, monitoring and research, is also included. This section also highlights issues that need to be addressed in the Maltese context.
Section 3 provides recommendations, which can contribute to the provision of good, quality care in the field. Recommendations are divided into broad areas relating to: financing, participation and access, transition; ratios; staff qualifications; learning programmes; monitoring and evaluation as well as evaluation and research.
The Report recommends and gives guidelines on the following:
1. Generous leave benefits for working parents could help reduce the need for costly infant provision and promote more equitable sharing of responsibilities.
2. Tax rebates, funding and/or subsidies for accredited day-care centres and small, private KG centres. Guarantee of affordable, quality provision is of paramount importance especially for low and middle-income parents.
3. Establishments responsible for young children ought to publish literature to promote their practices. This would result in a better-informed public.
4. Parents should be encouraged to visit different centres/to shop around and see what is available. Parents should be invited to spend time at centres when there are children.
5. Introduction of family-friendly benefits at place of work. Employers should be partners in child-care provision.
6. Ratios of adult to children need to be addressed. There should be a maximum of 15 three and four-year-old children with 1 qualified adult + 1 assistant. In child-care centres, there should be a maximum of two or three babies (under 12 months) with 1 trained/qualified adult; four children aged 12 to 24 months with one trained adult and a maximum of 8 children aged 24 to 36 months with one trained adult.
7. Staff at all levels and in all settings (state/private) should have appropriate qualifications. Over a period of time, current staff qualifications have to be upgraded until a situation is attained where all members of staff employed in the early years sector have a minimum qualification.
8. Practitioners in the field should have substantial skills, partly acquired in their personal and professional training to carefully observe, evaluate and alter the programme of activities being offered to children attending their centre in order to provide high quality experiences.
9. Programmes should be pedagogically sound and conducted by appropriately trained professionals. A high quality programme in early childhood implies child initiative, play and involvement. If a programme is over-focused on formal skills, it is more likely to provide opportunities for children to fail, and to develop a higher dependency on adults, promoting in them negative perceptions of their own competencies. Where KG centres form part of schools, a specific person has to be designated as the person responsible for the curricular programme at the centre.
10. Rather than working independently and in isolation staff at child-care centres should form networks or clusters. This could facilitate issues related to administration, organisation of training, negotiating with the authorities re issues related to salaries, training, holidays, insurance and setting of parental fees.
11. Centres should be encouraged to work in collaboration in order to find out more about appropriate and best practice. Such sharing of positive experiences could help to disseminate good practice across centres.
12. Within centres, there should be incentives to train and/or employ qualified staff to continually improve expertise. These incentives could also be linked to financial remuneration/subsidy for the centres themselves.
13. At a local level (centre/school-based) research ought to be undertaken in order to find out what immediate, short and long-term effects early childhood settings are having on the children in a range of skills one expects children to develop.
14. Each KG centre and early childhood institution should provide an annual report based on self-evaluation, reports from parents and children.
15. External monitoring and evaluation of practices at early childhood centres should be the responsibility of appropriately qualified staff.
16. When an application for a new centre is put forward and more importantly, once a license is given there should be careful scrutiny of premises, of staff and their qualifications and good standing.
17. Once a centre earns a license, unannounced inspections should be conducted periodically. A license should be renewed periodically.
18. The license can be revoked if premises or practice are not according to established standards. Transition periods may be allowed in order to allow for the service providers to upgrade premises, facilities or practices.
19. The license should be displayed in the main entrance of the building. Should there be a temporary license pending up-grading of premises or improvement in any sector, this should be clearly indicated together with a time-frame by when the situation is to be rectified.
Minister Galea thanked the working group for the valuable work they carried out and said he believes that the Sollars Report will positively influence the development of ECEC policies and strategies. “All stakeholders now need to deeply reflect on the findings and to strengthen their commitment to upgrade quality education in this area. The Government, through the Ministry of Education, has already taken on board many of the recommendations and we are working with those involved to map a programme of implementation.”
© Copyright 2006 - MaltaMedia Online Network
Top of Page
|
|
|
Government & Politics
Latest Headlines
|
|
