The Closing the Gap report shows a mix of successes and failures, but early childhood education holds the key to significant progress.
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.
Sesame Street isn’t only a television show.
See-ming Lee
Most people have heard that Finland leads the world in education, but fewer have heard that Finland’s neighbour, Sweden, is the international leader in early childhood education and care.
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”.
Developing the creativity habit requires more than just good intentions.
Navy Hale Keiki School/Flickr
A long-term trend of declining creativity test scores has renewed interest in mechanisms to stimulate and foster the development of creativity – at home, in schools, universities and workplaces. At the…
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.
Shutterstock
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.
Shutterstock
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…
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…
A government giving the Productivity Commission an issue to probe should always expect that it is likely to get back more than it bargained for. The commission, well known for both rigour and commitment…
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…
School, or more play?
Kindergarden kids by Robert Kneschke/Shutterstock
When are children “ready” for school? There is much debate about when the transition between play-based pre-school and the start of “formal” schooling should begin. The trend in the UK primary school curriculum…
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…
Teaching parents how to parent has many positive outcomes, but it doesn’t mean people are going to like it.
Flickr/Russ Robinson
The idea of teaching parents how to parent makes many of us uncomfortable. However, educating parents is a positive step towards a society that provides all children with the best possible start in life…
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…
My mum could use that extra cash.
Peter Macdiarmid/PA
Kitty Stewart, London School of Economics and Political Science
The coalition has placed a series of new plans on the table with regard to childcare and early years education. Most eye-catching is the new “tax-free childcare” scheme: from September 2015, for every…
Adjunct Professor, Department of Applied Psychology and Human Development at Ontario Institute for the Study of Education (OISE) and Senior Policy Fellow at the Atkinson Centre, University of Toronto
Professor, Canada Research Chair in Determinants of Child Development, Owerko Centre at the Alberta Children’s Hospital Research Institute, University of Calgary