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Blog three.
All
early childhood settings have updated policies and legislation acts that they
are legally required to follow in order to protect children's health and
safety. Therefore, i will be discussing some in this blog relating the topic
of ratios to a macro level.
As
a part of the education childhood regulations of 2008, under part two of
standards it mentions qualifications, ratios and the size of service. "The
legislation requires that teachers are obligated to follow the minimum
adult-to-child ratios of children who attend the setting at any time (Parliamentary
council office, 2016)." Even though the government expect teachers to
follow the current ratios it's really a difficult situation when for example 30
children are enrolled on the day, therefore four staff members are working to
cover ratios and breaks. However, there may be 15 children outside and only one
staff member outside. How do you figure that? Would this be considered quality care?
There
are policies that involve ratio size when going on excursions and a policy has
been made surrounding toilet ratios. The ratios size still remains the same
when going on an excursion, however, "depending on the assessment and
management risk, the group size is then deemed accordingly (Education.govt.nz,
2015). The current toilet ratio is that there has to be a toilet for every
"one-15 people. Persons are defined as children aged two and older
(Education.govt.nz. 2015)."
The government determines everything in the way of education. And even though participation of education is rising due to families needing a second income, the means of quality care is slowly becoming non important as the workload expected from teachers is rising. A child forum report released the major concerns of teacher child ratios in some centers which are mostly "crowd management or like factory farming for children (NZEI TE RIUROA, 2015)." Quality care should not be compromised in order to meet ratio requirements!
NZEI TE RIUROA. (2015). Early childhood teachers back "factory faring report". Retrieved from: http://www.nzei.org.nz/NZEI/Media/Releases/2015/10/Early_childhood_teachers_back__factory-farming__report.aspx?WebsiteKey=868aa165-3deb-46a3-bc55-5a9fc2637ac6#.Vwmxvy6qpBc
Education.govt.nz.(n.d). HS17 excursions. Retrived from: (http://www.education.govt.nz/early-childhood/running-an-ece-service/the-regulatory-framework-for-ece/licensing-criteria/centre-based-ece-services/health-and-safety/hazards-and-outings/hs17-excursions/
Parliamentary Counsel Office.(2008). Education (early childhood services) regulations 2008. Retrieved from: http://www.legislation.govt.nz/regulation/public/2008/0204/latest/DLM1412611.html
I am very interested in your topic especially as I work in an infants and toddler setting where low ratios are very important!
ReplyDeleteI liked your point "there may be 15 children outside and only one staff member outside". This is a very valid point as the setting may be in ratio but not providing quality care. Perhaps there needs to be policies to ensure situations like this do not happen. I personally would like to see the government lower their ratios as i believe centres working at maximum ratios are not providing quality education.