Education is missing ingredient in leaders’ child-care promises
It’s encouraging to see that the Liberal, NDP, Conservative and Green parties have each made commitments related to early learning and child care.
Among other initiatives, the Liberals have committed to create 250,000 spaces for before- and after-school care (and cut fees by 10 per cent); the Conservative party will increase social transfer payments to help provinces and territories finance child care and early learning; the NDP plans to create 500,000 new child care spaces over the next four years; and the Green Party intends to create a universal child care program, with an emphasis on creating child care spaces in workplaces.
Admirable plans for the most part, but one necessary ingredient seems to be missing — who will provide the care and education to the children who benefit from the creation of these new spaces?
To increase the number of child care spaces available to families, there needs to be a solid plan for the recruitment and retention of qualified early childhood educators.
Research has shown that the key component of quality in early learning and child care is the presence of qualified early childhood educators.
And, not surprisingly, the key to attracting and keeping qualified educators in the field is proper remuneration and appropriate working conditions.
Over the past 10 years, politicians and policymakers have realized that the first 2,000 days of a child’s life are critical in terms of brain development and social and emotional learning, and with potentially life-long effects — something that early childhood educators have known for a long time.
This realization is evidenced by the integration of early learning and child care into provincial and territorial departments of education, which have created and who continue to create jurisdictional initiatives such as early learning frameworks, play-based programs for four-year-olds located in schools, supports for inclusive programming and other projects aimed at supporting the delivery of quality programming.
Child care is moving from an image of substitute care while Mom is at work to being recognized as a place where children grow and develop through intentionally planned, play-based activities and experiences.
This changing image has shone a bright light on the work of early childhood educators.
Educators plan and implement an engaging, inclusive, child-centred curriculum, carefully document children’s experiences in thoughtful and meaningful ways, work with families who come to know them as supportive and knowledgeable, all while providing nurturing care and attention to children from infancy to 12 years of age.
The role of an early childhood educator is complex — it combines caring with education, child-centred practice with family involvement, expertise with compassion. Yet, wages remain persistently and inappropriately low, and working conditions are often inadequate, leading to burnout and high staff turnover.
Until we start hearing about plans for real change on this front — change that recognizes the worth of and the need for well-qualified, well-paid and well-supported early childhood educators — the political promises for increased child care spaces are just empty words.