The shadow minister for early education, Kate Ellis, said child care costs had undergone a ‘massive increase’ since the last federal election.
AAP/Mick Tsikas
Labor’s shadow minister for early education, Kate Ellis, said there has been a massive increase in child care costs under the Coalition government. Is that an accurate reflection of the data?
A boy in the Ivory Coast practises reading his letters. Children can learn a lot about reading from each other during the “School Game”.
EPA/Legnan Koula
The benefits of learning through play are well documented. In rural communities in South Africa, “playing school” produces passionate lifelong readers.
What children learn in their first 2000 days of life is the most vital, so early learning shouldn’t be dismissed as babysitting.
Lukas Coch/AAP
The reorganisation of federal ministerial portfolios this week moved early childhood education and care from social services to education. This is a good thing.
Children need to get involved in classroom decisions that affect them, rather than just answering questions when prompted to do so.
Thomas Mukoya /Reuters
Naseema Shaik, Cape Peninsula University of Technology
At its simplest, participation is about allowing children to get involved in making decisions that affect their own lives and their own learning experiences.
The Productivity Commission’s report on childcare will help inform the Abbott government’s soon-to-be-unveiled ‘families package’.
AAP/Paul Miller
Many of the Productivity Commission’s proposals derive from assumptions that the funding of these services should ensure minimal interference, with a classic, market-based model for meeting “demand”.
Research shows children in early learning benefit from having a stable relationship with one teacher, but with 180 qualified early learning teachers leaving every week, that can be difficult to maintain.
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Last year in an open letter to the prime minister and the leader of the opposition, early childhood employers and peak bodies joined forces to ask for a commitment to early learning. They warned the political…
Giving today’s kids a flying start with early education will be crucial to helping them fill the gap left behind by retiring Baby Boomers.
Kevin Conor Keller/Flickr
The problem with Australia’s population ageing is not that there are too many older people – it’s that there are not enough young people to support them. That presents many challenges to Australia’s continued…
Long-term reforms are required to address the causes of early school leaving.
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The OECD’s 2009 Jobs for Youth report, released on the heels of the global financial crisis, made a number of policy recommendations to the Australian government to prevent a rise in youth unemployment…
Federal Minister for Indigenous Affairs Nigel Scullion with students in the Tiwi Islands, Northern Territory. Research shows acting on overcrowded housing could greatly improve Indigenous kids’ school attendance in remote communities.
AAP/Neda Vanovac
Tony Abbott is spending this week in North East Arnhem Land, part of his long-held hope “to be not just the Prime Minister but the Prime Minister for Aboriginal Affairs”. We asked our experts: what stories…
The Productivity Commission report reflect the limits set by Tony Abbott when he announced terms of reference focused on economic benefit.
AAP/Alan Porritt
The Productivity Commission’s Draft Report on Childcare and Early Childhood Learning shows the serious limitations of market economics for analysing social policy. The report’s 900-plus pages offer a collection…
The Productivity Commission contains many positive measures for Early Childhood Learning, but are they implementable?
AAP
The recommendations of the Productivity Commission into Childcare and Early Learning appear to be a win for early childhood learning. However, as with many reports such as this, the devil is in the detail…
Grandpa, I want to touch the Dalek!
Danny Lawson/PA Archive
As the school summer holidays beckon, families will be seeking out places to visit with their children, including museums, art galleries and science centres. It may be a way of keeping older children occupied…
Childcare is expensive, but it’s one of the best investments you can make.
Flickr/Howard county Library
With the Productivity Commission Report into Early Learning and Childcare due this month and ABS data on the subject released last week, the cost of childcare is in the spotlight again. However, highlighting…
For kids (and big kids), Lego can enhance learning. So what happens when the blocks are digital?
Steven Andrew/Flickr
Playing with building blocks such as Lego has been an established part of early childhood education for many years. Educators and theorists agree that building blocks or constructive play provide a wide…
A recent report from the Sutton Trust is the latest in a line of recommendations for family policy to focus on promoting secure attachment between parents and their children. What puzzles me is why the…
Forget the daily grunt… can we learn more vocab today?
kaarsten child image via Shutterstock
Every few months a story appears about the declining speech and language skills of children arriving in primary school. The epithet “the daily grunt” was invented by one newspaper to capture the lack of…
Do you think your Mum and Dad made the right choice?
John Stillwell/PA
Choosing a good quality nursery is one of the most important decisions any parent will make during the first years of their child’s life. In a recent report, UK school and childcare regulator Ofsted acknowledged…
Research shows kids are better off with quality early childhood learning, so why cut the funding?
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The recent announcement by assistant education minister Sussan Ley that the 15-hour preschool entitlement introduced by the ALP in 2013 may be wound back to 12 hours signals a worrying trend in Australian…