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ECE Taskforce Report: Tensions and contradictions

The ECE Taskforce Report ‘An Agenda for Amazing Children’ is out for consultation until 8 August. The Minister of Education wants to know what people think of the report and its 65 recommendations.

The report advocates the benefits of investing in high quality ECE. It talks about supporting families to participate and improving quality, about greater innovation and increased accountability.

However, underpinning the report are tensions and contradictions that are both confusing and concerning.

It calls for increased efforts by services to engage and involve parents while proposing funding incentives for services that will support parents into full time employment.

It calls for high quality, increased professionalism, educational leadership and better identification of and support for children with special education needs at the same time as setting an 80% benchmark for qualified teachers.

It stresses the need for collaboration while promoting competition and market forces determining whether services succeed or not.

It talks about better targeted use of government funding to support learning outcomes ignoring the significant portion of tax payer’s money being realised as profit by business in the ECE sector.

And underneath all this is a sense that the Taskforce views ECE primarily to support parents into full time employment rather than a valued sector providing significant benefits for children and families in its own right.

The report has the potential to shift thinking about access to ECE as a right for all children, to be driven by market demands. Is that the future we want to see for ECE? What do you think?

Clare Wells