The new newsletter I received on Tuesday July 22. This newsletter spoke about the safety of children. In Australia they draft a report that contains information regarding professional that work with young children are only doing it because they love children. They have an issue of staff turn over every two years. The state of ECEC (Early Childhood Education and Care) says, “There is a need for high wages for all professional taking care of our children.” This is reported to the Federal Government it increase wages for professional so that they can afford to take care of themselves and keep doing the job they love. I found that an interesting insight to know that Australia has the same issue we have about such low wages for the professionals working with our children and doing it because of their love for the children. (Big Steps in Childcare, 2011)
The issue of equity and excellence that I discovered from Australia is that Australia reports that it is failing its children. (MacDonald, 2011) They want to do as much as possible to give the children the excellence they deserve. However, there are factors that are in the way such as developing a national framework to ensure the rights of children are in the policy and they fail to appoint a national children’s commissioner. (MacDonald, 2011) Without proper policy and a commissioner, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children have high mortality rates (children in poverty, the numbers of children in out of home care has increased without reason why the children are placed in care ( children in foster homes), and children of asylum-seekers remain in detention facilities without proper education. All of this has cause many young children committing suicide or imprison. Australian government wants this change to occur immediately, however first they must appoint a child commissioner before changes can occur. (MacDonald, 2011)
Big Steps in Childcare, (2011, July) Increased wages for childcare professional needed to ensure continued quality care. Retrieved from http://bigsteps.org.au/news/media/increased-wages-for-childcare-professionals-needed-to-ensure-continued-quality-care-30-06-2011
MacDonald, E. (2011, July) Australia failing its children: report. The Canberra Times. Retrieved from http://www.canberratimes.com.au/news/national/national/general/australia-failing-its-children-report/2217299.aspx
Hi Gwen. I have heard before the challenges that the aboriginal populations face in Australia. Your blog post only reaffirms that. I also agree that proper policy, a commissioner, and community support are needed in order to overcome these challenges and ensure excellence and equity within education.
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ReplyDeleteI also find it interesting that Australia has the same problems with underpaying education professionals. This seems to be a problem in many nations. I often wonder what it will take for the government to change this issue. We are constantly losing amazing educators due to the fact that they can not afford to continue working for such low wages. As living expenses and the cost of child care continues to rise, I worry about the possiblity of a shortage of great educators.
Thanks for some good information. I find it very interesting that everyone including Australia wants best for children but try their best to cut corners trying to get the best results possible. It is not surprising to me that Australia has problems with keeping help and turn overs in educating young people due to the way they want to pay the people who help educate their children.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the portion about high wages. Even though I live in a community where the average pay is $17 an hour our preschool teachers here make about $12. I believe this comes from the less formal accounts of preschool and lack of funding. Great information thanks for sharing.
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