Early Learning Advisor’s Report Provides Hopeful Vision for Ontario’s Children and Families
Toronto – Ontario’s current early learning and child care programs are a patchwork of services. For parents, it is hard to find a quality early learning and child care program. When parents find a program, early learning and child care can be extremely expensive. Despite the high cost to parents, staff working in early learning and child care are underpaid and undervalued for their critical work in early childhood education.
Today’s report by Ontario’s Early Learning Advisor sets a new vision. The vision is of coordinated services for families, high quality early learning for children and a model of public accountability through a new Early Years Division of the Ministry of Education.
There are many positive recommendations in the report. In our report to Dr. Pascal, we made several recommendations that are reflected in the report, such as:
A High Quality Program
The program has a “single child-focused curriculum, planned and delivered by a qualified team of educators”. The program will rely on play based programming
Parental Involvement and Affordability
The program aims to parental involvement and affordable extended hours and full year education and care.
Governance in the Public Sector
Early learning and child care will be governed by an Early Years Division of the Ministry of Education. In addition, local municipalities will be responsible for service planning for all children from infants to 12 years old.
Community Based Early Learning and Child Care Programs
Municipalities will continue to fund early learning and child care programs. They will form Best Start Child and Family Centres to coordinate and fund services.
A core part of the original commitment to full day learning was to commit new funding to full day learning. Savings from the expansion of publicly funded programs means municipalities will have more funding to support early learning and child care for younger years. In addition, the report recommends a single transfer of funding to municipalities that includes all existing transfers.
The report is a very important move towards universal and publically funded early learning programs for all children in Ontario.
The Early Learning Advisors’ report is moment of hope for children and families but the real work begins today.
We look forward to working with the Ministry of Children and Youth Services, the Ministry of Education and municipalities across the province to strengthen our system of early learning and child care.
RELATED LINKS
EARLY LEARNING: A Star Special on a new vision for Ontario Children
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I would like to say I am very pleased with Mr. Pascal’s recomendations. Our children should always come first and it is all of our responsibilties to ensure that is the case. The better we take care of our children today the better they will take care of us tomorrow. Thank you Mr. Pascal. Both parents and children will benefit from Mr. Pascal’s recomendations. I feel as though a the huge stress I have carried around since I went back to work and had to find care for my son,has been releived because there is hope for our children as far as child care and education is concerned.
An Ontario Mother with a renewed sense of hope.
Great article. Thanks for spreading the word about the
child care. Keep writing