industry & reform great caregivers and it ’ s not early childhood education – it ’ s just childcare .
“ That ’ s the perception which is holding us back in terms of appropriate remuneration for teachers and educators .
“ This completely diminishes the complexities of early childhood development and the work that teachers do with the kids ,” Fenech said .
In addition to providing better working conditions and a better salary to staff , Fenech believes that the government needs to ensure the preschool program will be of quality and led by early childhood teachers . “ We need to make sure that we ’ re not just hot-housing children in preschool and long day care centres so that parents and particularly mothers can work – we need a highly qualified and a stable workforce .”
A BIGGER SECTOR ISSUE According to Fenech , one of the key problems of early childhood education in Australia is that it is “ heavily marketed ” as many long day care services and , in some jurisdictions like New South Wales , even preschools are delivered by for-profit providers .
The associate lecturer is calling to reform the sector where the education of children is only conducted by not-forprofit providers .
“ I think to make a profit out of children is inherently unethical , and when we have a system where you can make a profit out of young children , the quality will always be compromised .”
Not-for-profit services provide the highest quality and will spend around 80 per cent of their budget on staffing , professional development and working environments , Fenech said , meaning they sustain their staff and the staff don ’ t leave .
But the issue is when you ’ ve got those profit imperatives , she said , then quality can be jeopardised , prices for parents are high , and there is a large staff turnover .
It makes the life of a school teacher much easier because young children start school better off .
Fenech believes the sector will get better once the society “ gets out of the mindset that early education is somehow different to primary and secondary education ”, and will be considered as education and not just care .
“ Primary and secondary schools , whether they are government schools , Catholic or independent schools , cannot make a profit that goes back into the pockets of shareholders from educating children .
“ But somehow we ’ ve allowed that to happen for our youngest school children ,” Fenech said . ■
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