Child's play is top of the agenda [IrishTimes]
- Published: 29 March 2011
Two rival organisations, representing 80 per cent of the providers of centre- based childcare, have joined forces to ensure their voices are heard, writes SHEILA WAYMAN
GONE IS the time when a child’s first day at school represented a tearful cutting of the apron strings. Now children generally arrive at primary level as confident veterans of pre-school, attuned to classroom routine and being part of a group.
The take-up on the free pre-school year, which was introduced in January 2010 under the Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) scheme, is “phenomenal”, says the chief executive of the Irish Preschool Play Association (IPPA), Irene Gunning.
An estimated 97 per cent of children now attend pre-school and 94 per cent of childcare centres have opted into the ECCE scheme.
For three hours a day, five days a week, for 38 weeks of the year, children between the ages of three and four are entitled to go to a pre-school free of charge. The State pays centres €64.50 a week for each child (€75 where staff are more highly trained) and the services can levy only “top up” fees from parents for more hours or additional, optional extras such as food, outings and other activities.
To see pre-school as a place where children learn to sit down at a table quietly in preparation for “real” school would be a mistake.
Parents should look on it as a very rich year for their children, says Gunning, when they are stretched physically and intellectually, socially and emotionally. Children learn by doing, which should be a messy, noisy, very active process.
The ECCE scheme is funded by the State but provided by a childcare industry which operates in the open market and developed rapidly at a time when getting more women into the workforce was an economic imperative.
For the past 20-plus years, two rival organisations have represented the sector, but now they are merging to form “one big voice” called Early Childhood Ireland, representing at least 80 per cent of providers of centre-based childcare. It will enable them to pool resources for, among other things, training, lobbying and research to inform policies.
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