OECD Presentation
ECEC Quality Project
Ms Vicki Rundle
Australian Government
December 2009
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Early Childhood Initiatives
Early Childhood Development Strategy
Improving Quality and Accessibility of Early Childhood Education and Care Services
Quality
National
standards
rating system
Early Years
Learning
Framework
Streamlined
regulation
Workforce
University
places
HECS
remission
No TAFE fees
National
strategy
Data
Support for
Parents &
Funding
AEDI
National
Performance
Information
Framework &
Data
Agreement
Home
interaction
program
Increased
CCTR
Integrated
services
Better
information
For parents
Infrastructure
260 early
learning
& care
centres
Early
Childhood
Education
Indigenous
Early
Childhood
Development
Universal
Access to
Early
Childhood
education
Early learning
programs for
remote
Indigenous
children
Indigenous
Early
Childhood
Development
National
Partnership &
children &
family centres
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Australia’s quality reform agenda
The reforms agreed to by the Council of Australian Governments
comprise:
• strong national quality standards for early childhood education and care;
• a quality rating system to drive continuous improvement and provide parents
with relevant information about the quality of learning and care;
• a new national body;
• streamlining or integrating licensing and accreditation arrangements; and
• a national Early Years Learning Framework.
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questions
Drawing on Australia’s recent experiences:
• the current questions would capture the essence of our reforms:
o
The first three analytical questions seem to be critical to answer before we
get to the other two
o
Although all five are relevant
Some additional thoughts:
o
there is no single path to quality
o
the importance of context: critical to know where countries are starting from
and the geo-political environment in which early childhood services are
delivered
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Q 2 - What is Australia doing?
Against the 7 policy areas, Australia is taking action to:
Take a systemic and integrated approach to policy development /
implementation
Provide autonomy, funding and support to services
Provide substantial public investment in services and infrastructure
Place systematic attention to monitoring and data collection
Improve working conditions and professional education for staff
Develop broad guidelines and curricular standards with stakeholders
Encourage family and community involvement in early childhood services
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Q 3 : Policy tool box & packages
The tool box:
• a good idea
• however, definitions and indicators can be useful, but they are often very
country (or even dataset) specific and can be hard to replicate elsewhere
• Our new indicators will be based on the new policy framework and seven
dimensions or areas of quality
Policy packages:
• should be about identifying a range of options – to suit changing
political/financial/policy climates over time : no one road to quality
• based on evidence: what works and what can be implemented
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Q 4 - Country Specific Profile
• May be useful, for eg, benchmarking with “like”
countries but would appreciate a discussion today
Q 5 – Policy Forums
• Good idea
• Build consensus with stakeholders
• External/international flavor is beneficial
• International forums – be creative, travel is a
constraint
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Questions for brainstorming
Writing survey questions is something of an art.
Our approach is instead to offer some of the answers are seeking or we
could possibly provide:
• Governance / coordination: we would want to talk about:
o
o
the new working relationship between our Commonwealth and state
governments; and
the need to balance providing support and autonomy for services with being
confident about the level of quality services provide.
• Funding: we would want to talk about funding mechanisms including
creating incentives to improve quality and enhancing access for those most
in need and/or cash transfers/subsidies for parents vis a vis investing in
service delivery systems
• Monitoring and data: we would want to talk about existing efforts, future
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plans, and the constraints of working across a number of separate
bureaucracies and jurisdictions.
Questions for brainstorming,
• Professionalising the EC workforce generally including creating career paths
and a workforce mix that is affordable and enhances quality
• Teachers: we would want to talk about existing efforts to improve
recruitment, retention and working conditions.
• Organisation, curriculum and pedagogy: we would want to talk about
o
o
our new Early Years Learning Framework; and
how we have engaged families and the broader community in early
childhood services, what’s worked well and what has been less successful.
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Thank you and Merry Xmas
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