Early years learning: closing the gap

Apr 29, 2014 Editorial

The best, child-centered early years learning can be a highly effective way of improving social mobility.
The early years of childhood, the point at which politicians really could make a difference, are at last being taken more seriously at the top of government.
But policy objectives remain dangerously confused. On the one hand, the ambition is to provide high quality care even for two-year-olds, so that every child starts school ready to learn. On the other, there is an ambition to make care affordable and extensive.
Both policies are important and worthwhile. It is well known that the best, child-centered early years learning can be a highly effective way of improving social mobility. It can overcome the skills gap between the most deprived and the most advantaged, a gap sometimes as much as 18 months, and one that tends to become entrenched as soon as school starts.
At the same time, the scarcity of good affordable childcare is a major factor in mothers not returning to work, or working only part-time. The inability to work, even for a relatively short period, embeds the gender pay gap and it makes a significant contribution to the number of children living in poverty.
Late last month, in Britain, the chief inspector of schools, Sir Michael Wilshaw, called for much more rigour in the early years environment, horrifying many who think British children are already taught too much, too soon, too formally.
In Guyana, we complain that children are not taught to the extent that even when they are ready to leave school many still are not familiar with their alphabet. These days a vast majority of school leavers are semi-literate. But in a normal society where focus is on the education system, there are inspections.
It is predictable enough that a former head teacher who runs schools inspections thinks schools are the answer to closing the social divide. In Guyana, schools actually widen the social divide because it creates those who are incapable of surviving in the world of work and those who develop superior academic skills to the point that they are the ones who would become the national leaders.
In the United Kingdom, one senior official, a woman, wants a highly skilled, socially mobile workforce. But she acknowledged that it is not only teachers who have a part to play. Yet, just as Sir Michael thinks of schools, the minister is a politician who describes success in simple, short-term measures. Her measure of success – to make sure that all children start their formal education from the same place – is a good one. But it won’t happen in a single parliamentary term. It needs sustained commitment.
It is the same in Guyana except that we do not allow for any politician to settle down for a prolonged period. Educationists need time to reverse what most certainly stemmed from a decade of mismanagement and people ignoring the decline.
Without it, what money there is will be misdirected. The promised money for childcare package is spread too widely. In the United Kingdom families earning £300,000 do not need a government subsidy. Families in underprovided inner-city areas do.
In Guyana millionaires and paupers alike will share the same pie, each receiving equal shares.
The good news is that when universal credit comes in, up to 85 per cent of childcare costs will be met. The bad news is that they will be funded from elsewhere in the budget. There is nothing here to end the inadequate number of childcare places in the poorest parts of the country, or to improve the standard of care they offer. That’s no way to close the social gap.
But what is not readily recognised is the fact that there is a problem with the people who are expected to impart knowledge to the children. Many of the teachers are functionally illiterate. They should not have been teachers in the first instance but for the fact that the skilled ones left these shores in search of better remuneration.
Perhaps there should be a programme that would ensure the development of the very young child and the teachers.

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Early years learning: closing the gap

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