Comment on Inspections

Teresa Heeney, CEO of Early Childhood Ireland spoke to Jonathan Healy on Newstalk Lunchtime today about the announcement by Jan O’Sullivan, the Minister for Education (as reported in Irish Independent) that creches and other preschool providers will be subject to school type inspections, to check on the quality of education they offer, as part of the Minister’s wider drive to use preschool to lay the foundation to good education.

“This announcement comes very soon after the Minister made another announcement about a review of the training and qualifications that are required for people that are going to work in early childhood settings and it speaks to her awareness of the importance of investment in early childhood care and education.
“We want to welcome the Minister’s announcement about these new inspectors, with some caveats.
“All the international evidence confirms that children’s minds are at their most curious in their earliest years, between the ages of zero to 3 and zero to 4.  So investment at that time and ensuring the outcomes for children makes a lot of sense both in Ireland and internationally.”

Asked about Early Childhood Ireland’s concerns, Teresa replied:

“Well one of the things that we’d be talking to the Minister about, when we meet her about this, is how to ensure that any system that is introduced works well with the existing system.  So, for example, we can’t have any over schoolification of inspection in early childhood settings.

“We know that play is how children learn.  So whoever is going to become the inspectors of these settings needs to have a very, very good understanding about what play looks like, and when children are using play to learn about literacy, to learn about numeracy, physics and chemistry and that that’s recognised by the inspector.

“The other thing that’s really, really important to say is that currently this sector is inspected by Pobal, Tusla and now they are going to be inspected by Education and they are already inspected by NERA.  They can’t tolerate a whole raft of inspections like that…”

When asked by Jonathan Healy to clarify the full list and confirm that these inspectors are physically turning up at the crèche door, Teresa replied:

•  NERA, the National Employment Rights Authority
• Tusla, in the form of the preschool inspectorate
• Pobal who come in to audit the free preschool year and the requirements of the preschool year
• And now we’re going to have the Department of Education inspectors.

Jonathan Healy observed that he is all in favour of saving public money and here we have 4 public bodies when perhaps one will do? Teresa replied:“Absolutely.  That will be top of our agenda when we speak to the Minister.
“So there’s:

a) who is going to be doing inspection;
b) how are they going to do it; and then
c) how can they work with the existing inspection infrastructure.

“The other piece that’s really important to say is that the Minister works with primary school teachers and secondary school teachers in the main who all have pensionable jobs and they’re on good salaries.
“Most of the people who work in early education facilities are paid, if not the minimum wage, something very close to the minimum wage.  And since the introduction of the free preschool year, because funding in only provided for 38 weeks of the year, many of those people are required to go on the dole for the summer and that’s no way to build a professional system.”

Listen to the interview at @minute 24.43 on Newstalk