A good thing? or some good elements? Or a threat? Maybe it’s best understood as the fulfillment of Plato’s vision? Or Huxley’s – are Alphas and Epsilons coming sooner, with women likely to give up on child-bearing altogether? Please feel free to send in your comments….. GS
http://education.independent.co.uk/news/story.jsp?story=589175
03 December 2004
Care from 'dawn to dusk' is promised
for children aged 3 to 14
By Richard Garner Education Editor
Children from three to 14
will be guaranteed "dawn to dusk" child care as a result of a
revolution in the way schools are run.
Every secondary school will
have to open its doors from 8am to 6pm throughout the year. They will offer 11-
to 14-year-olds activities including sport, music clubs and homework, as well
as child care for the children of working parents. In the case of three to
11-year-olds, the 8am until 6pm child care could be offered either by a school,
childminder or day nursery.
Margaret Hodge, the
minister for Children, described the move as "nothing less than a
childcare revolution".
"It brings us from a
state where young children and families were barely on the fringes of provision
to where they're right at the heart of the welfare state," she said.
"It won't be incarcerating children in schools from 8am to 6pm as has been
suggested by some commentators.
"It will allow parents
on the early shift to drop their children off at 8am and perhaps pick them up
at 3.30pm - and those on the late shift to pick them up at 6pm."
Ministers expect about half
the country's primary schools to offer the "wrap-around" care. But in
the secondary sector the impact of the changes will be much greater.
"By 2010 all secondary
schools will be open from 8am until 6pm on weekdays all year round offering a
range of activities such as music, sport and holiday activities," stated a
document published yesterday outlining the Government's 10-year strategy on
child care. It said that parents would have to pay for some activities such as
child care but that out-of-hours schools' clubs should be free.
The extended schools plan,
first floated by Tony Blair more than a year ago, was one of several measures
unveiled yesterday in Gordon Brown's pre-Budget report. A massive increase in
the number of children's centres - offering combined education and health care
for babies and children up to four years old - was also announced.
Their numbers will expand
from 600 at present to 2,500 by 2008 and 3,500 by the end of the decade -
"one in every community or five on average in every constituency",
according to Mr Brown.
Ministers are also pledging
increased nursery provision. At present, every three and four-year-old is
entitled to 12.5 hours a week free nursery provision for 33 weeks a year. By
2010 this will have increased to 15 hours for 38 weeks with a goal of 20 hours
a week eventually. An experiment on extra nursery education provision for
two-year-olds - in line with research last week that showed those who received
three years of early years education were up to a year
ahead in reading and maths when they started school - will be launched in the
most deprived communities. If successful, the increase in the number of
children's centres will make them available to all by the end of the decade.
In addition, Mr Brown
announced an increase to the child trust fund. A child currently receives £250
at birth (or £500 for those from the poorest families) to be put into a trust
fund. Now ministers are to consult over adding another £250 or £500 when the
child reaches seven. In all, the package will double
the number of childcare places, by about a million.
The plans were welcomed by
early years' campaigners and teachers' organisations. David Hart, the general
secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, said: "The
Government's childcare strategy makes sense providing schools are given funding
to make it work."
Dr Mary Bousted, the
general secretary of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, warned:
"The new deal will be a poor bargain unless staff are properly trained and
paid ... Quality does not come on the cheap."
6 December 2004 20:40