Forget about daycare, a new Canadian report recommends every child should start going to school starting at age two.
The Early Years Study 3, released Tuesday, recommends toddlers have access to publicly funded early-childhood education at their local school. The report says an "avalanche of evidence" indicates there's a big payoff for kids if they start learning earlier.
"Education is well-established and a well-valued system within our country, and it's a place we feel it should be attached to, to build on," Margaret Norrie McCain, who co-authored the report with the late Dr. Fraser Mustard and Kerry McCuaig," said in the Toronto Star.
"We need to think of building education downward, but at the same time not 'schoolifying' kids but stimulating kids" through optional, play-based programs."
Mustard, who died last week, told the Star in an interview last month that the report's recommendations should be easy to implement in Ontario, which already has a full-day kindergarten for children aged four and five.
"I would come down to three-year-olds, then two-year-olds and one-year-olds," Mustard said. "I'd move right down, and I'd pay (early childhood educators) well, and if you are telling me we don't have the money, I'd make the point that the risk for physical and mental health problems is actually set in early development."
McCuaig said although the federal Conservative government scrapped a proposed national child-care plan in 2007, the provinces have been making progress "by stealth." The number of child-care spaces across Canada has grown more than 20 per cent.
The report found half of all children regularly attend child-care centres or school-based kindergarten and preschool programs. With careful funding, most provinces could provide universal access.
The report suggests that rather than creating whole new programs for early-childhood education, schools could become community centres for families "with supports and programs from pregnancy on."
The provinces are pushing ahead, said McCuaig.
"If the federal government jumped on board, Canada would be ready to explode in this area and be a model for the world, certainly for North America," she said.
On an index created by the report's authors, the authors measured the provinces against five standards related to the quality of early-childhood education. Quebec, Prince Edward Island and Manitoba received a passing grade, with Ontario placing fourth.
Predictably, the report drew negative comments.
"Free baby sitting, paid for by our tax dollars plain and simple," said MorrisLa.
"So Much For Family..." added Mary Ewen. "Why not just institutionalize them out of the hospital nursery?? It's getting closer to that each day that passes. ...Truly sad."
The Star's parenting web site editor, Brandie Weikle, blogged on parentcentral.ca that the report is likely to come in for criticism from those who already believe government is intruding too much in child-rearing.
"It's important to note that - just like kindergarten in Ontario - this kind of program would be optional," she wrote.
"Predictably, there are those who suggest providing quality child care for all kids is a "nanny state" move that rips babies away from their mothers' bosoms. But that's just inaccurate and irrational."
(CBC photo)
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