The education of young children is being compromised because so few nursery staff are educated beyond secondary school level, a report suggests.
No, it\’s not a problem.
Only 7 per cent of nursery heads, nursery nurses and assistants have post-secondary school qualifications, the report found. The vast majority finished their training having passed GNVQ level 3, a vocational qualification that is equivalent to an A level.
The poorly qualified early-years workforce is in sharp contrast to much of Europe, and elsewhere, where the majority of staff are qualified to degree level, or have three years of intensive training in child development before they start work.
But changing this system would indeed be a problem.
We\’ve seen this process at work before: first with teachers and then with nurses.
First take a job which is largely concerned with matters best learnt on that job. Crowd control, teaching practice, wiping bottoms and feeding patients.
Then insist that the training for said job should not in fact be on the job, rather, it must take place in the confines of academe.
You then have a workforce which doesn\’t in fact have the necessary skills but since a degree is required as the entry ticket you can now call it a profession.
Pay rises all around, most especially for those who cannot actually do the job themselves and get the jobs of teaching the subject in academe.
No, someone to look after Samantha and Jeremy while Mummy makes herself Yummy does not need a degree.
Filling sippy cups and changing the knickers of those who inevitably have accidents really does not qualify as a profession: a valuable job, yes, an important one, yes, but not one that needs to be graduate entry.
And don\’t forget, you\’ll have to pay for all this through the tax system too.
Meanwhile, many dedicated and experienced workers who enjoy what they do are either put on the scrapheap or made to feel inferior. Their places are taken by those who think changing nappies is below them.
Training on the job certainly has its place, but childcare is a tricky one because I’m not sure many parents would want people with absolutely no prior training looking after their children.
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But training on the job means that there would be experienced staff supervising the inexperienced staff.
And, of course, parents will have to be ‘professionally qualfied’ too, for those long periods of time when their offspring are in their own care.
New parents have no childcare training and yet they cope. I am sure our great leaders are looking at compulsory degrees in parenting…
Another big problem is that University-level education courses are unbelievably crap.
My understanding is that the majority of educationalists regard early years teaching as the most important stage of a child’s development. It is precisely for this reason that early years teachers should be suitably qualified. They are certainly not just there for crowd control and changing nappies.
Perhaps it is the general ignorance of this combined with political populism that results in our education system being regarded as worst than p*ss poor relative to our competitors.
“our education system being regarded as worst than p*ss poor relative to our competitors”
a) who the hell are ‘our competitors’? the last time I checked the UK wasn’t a company…
b) The people who regard the UK system as worse than pisspoor relative to comparable countries are (ironically enough…) ill-informed. This report highlights the fact that while we could do better, we’re firmly mid-table w.r.t. high-income countries…
It’s all part and parcel of the credentialling mania that bedevils so many unskilled/low-skilled jobs such as hair dressing.
Our infant schools are the places where the most important life lessons are taught. They are:
Sit still
Shut up
Pull your knickers back up.
Don’t spit on the other kids.
Only your Gran thinks the sun shines out of your arse, in here you are just one of the class.
Stop picking your nose.
George; Don’t do that.
You don’t need a degree, you need a special affinity for the nippers, and a whole lot of patience. Add to that a sound training in child care and first aid. And that can best be learned on the job, with the oversight of an experienced trainer.
I remember what nurses used to be like, before their patient care and empathy skills were junked by the “modernisers”. They enjoyed much more respect then, than they do now.
My understanding is that the majority of educationalists regard early years teaching as the most important stage of a child’s development.
True, but the nature of that learning process is….look, this block goes on top of that one. ….oh isn’t that a nice colour……..are you ok, did you want a drink……etc.
Small children need love and care and stimulation. Its love of job that makes child carers good, not degrees.