It was a privilege to attend the Jobs and Skills Summit in Canberra earlier this month, which hosted 142 delegates, including members of National Cabinet, the state and territory premiers and chief ministers, industry groups, unions, employers, community representatives and advocates. Over half the delegates were women and there was representation from First Nations peoples, […]
Category Archives: Policy
The voice of educators: Exhausted but hopeful
Early Childhood Australia (ECA) was invited to participate in the federal government’s Jobs and Skills Summit in Canberra from 1–2 September 2022 to represent the early childhood education and care (ECEC) sector. Ahead of the summit, we surveyed ECA members and the wider early childhood profession to seek people’s perspective on the most significant issues […]
Creating a world-class early education system
As an early childhood educator in Melbourne, I found myself in a bit of a funk at the beginning of September. Working through the COVID-19 lockdowns had taken its toll. I think it’s a place many educators will probably identify with this year. I was fortunate enough to be the recipient of one of the […]
OECD Education at a Glance 2021
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is an international organisation that works to build better policies for better lives. It recently released the latest edition of the Education at a Glance report, which provides a global perspective on education and includes information specifically about early childhood education and care (ECEC). What does the […]
Does early learning matter enough in Australia?
Does early learning matter enough in Australia? Well, it definitely matters for children who thrive when they can learn through play. It matters to families who value the benefits for their children, as well as it because it enables them to work. It matters for our amazing early childhood educators, who’ve been at the frontline […]
Kindergarten funding, time for an ongoing commitment
Since 2013 children across Australia have been attending kindergarten for 15 hours each week. For eight years they have been the beneficiaries of a funding partnership between the Commonwealth, State and Territory governments. These children are now teenagers in their first year of secondary school! It’s a partnership that has enabled more children to engage […]
An EYLF wish list: What’s on yours?
Rolled out more than ten years ago and a key element of the National Quality Framework, the Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF) has had an enormous positive impact on early childhood education in Australia. The review process, which is now underway, provides a valuable opportunity for the framework to be refined in line with recent […]
ECA’s Federal Budget for early education
Each year ECA prepares a pre-budget submission for the Commonwealth Government to ensure the views of the early childhood education and care sector can be incorporated into the Budget process. In late November 2020, the Assistant Treasurer called for submissions from individuals, businesses and community groups on their priorities for the 2021-22 budget. The 2020 […]
Where is the child in the debate over free childcare?
This blog brings a practitioner view from the frontline. MEL ANGEL, an Adelaide-based teacher, learner and researcher working in the field of early childhood education writes about what she has seen and what she thinks since ‘free child care’ launched itself on an unsuspecting early childhood education and care sector. Twelve July, 2020 has come […]
A testing challenge for early childhood
Do cross-national assessments of young children confirm what we already know or is it worse: are they ‘robbing meaning from individual histories’? Peter Moss—international keynote at ECA’s 2019 national conference—and Mathias Urban explore what we learn and what we lose if Australia allows itself to be drawn into international testing regimes known as ‘pre-school PISA’ as […]