NZ – Child support system needs to be fairer

The Government is seeking to make it easier and fairer for parents to make child support payments – but also make it harder to avoid stumping up.

Revenue Minister Peter Dunne today released a discussion document, Supporting Children, outlining wide-ranging proposals to change the system.

Parents owe about $2 billion but only about $600,000 of that is unpaid child care payments while the rest is penalties.

Mr Dunne said the scheme, which arranges financial support for the care of 210,000 children, needed to be fairer. At the moment, for example, a dad might care for a child before and after school every day but because he did not have them for 40 percent of nights (the current test) he was not considered to have shared care.

One of the options was to change the measure to a tiered system starting as low as 14 percent of nights and recognising other periods of time.

Other options around changing payments calculations included using an estimate of how much it cost to raise a child as a basis for payments, and taking the income of both parents into account – not just that of the absent parent.

Mr Dunne said most of the principal payments were made – 89 percent – but there were issues with penalties building up.

Options to tackle payment, penalties and debt included:

* making it compulsory for child support payments to be automatically deducted from salary and wages;

* reducing penalties after people made repayments for a reasonable length of time;

* providing an amnesty on penalty fees for people who pay the whole original debt;

* allowing penalties to be written off in some cases – for example, when someone is ill.

“An important part of getting the scheme right will be creating a situation where paying parents are more likely to comply with their obligations voluntarily,” Mr Dunne said.

“They are more likely to do that if they see their obligations as fair, transparent and reasonable – and not based upon some formula that seems to have no regard for their individual circumstances.”

The document also looked at tightening up on non-parents claiming child support – in some cases teens have left home and set up with people parents did not approve of but who they found they had to pay.

Mr Dunne said the scheme was introduced 18 years ago and was “outdated and sometimes unfair”.

Families were often more complex: both parents were more likely to be working and often separated fathers had a greater role caring for children than in the past.

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It was better if parents could reach their own arrangements but the scheme was a good backstop when that could not be worked out, he said.

The proposals would not please everyone but both parents had to share responsibility. Officials are trying to improve the tracking of absentee parents – about 27 percent of debtors are in Australia and 2 percent in other parts of the world.

The proposals, if adopted, would be more costly for Inland Revenue to administer.

Chief Families Commissioner Carl Davidson said parents needed support to continue to parent together as about 21 percent of households with dependent children were single-parent.

He said child support should be paid directly to the carer parent not through Inland Revenue and overseas experience showed people were more happy to pay when they saw the money going directly to their children rather than government departments.

He also said the system needed to account better for changing circumstances and flexibility around who paid what.

Every Child Counts spokeswoman Deborah Morris-Travers welcomed the proposals and said children in single parent homes were over-represented in poverty statistics.

She called on the Government to drop the domestic purposes benefit penalty for women who would not name the dad.

The discussion document will be on Inland Revenue’s website with submissions closing on October 29 and legislation would be introduced some time next year.

Labour’s Stuart Nash said National had campaigned “hysterically” on the issue and was now taking a leisurely approach to fixing problems.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/4086847/Child-support-system-needs-to-be-fairer

Politics is killing the world’s children

I recently met a woman called Opa, in a tiny village a few hours inland from Madang on the east coast of Papua New Guinea. World Vision had trained her as a birth attendant, but her fellow-trainee had died and she said she was now unable to attend to all of the community’s birthing needs. I looked around at the group of nursing mothers and asked how many had children who had died. Hands shot up, and the uniform reply was ”plenty”.

By contrast, the average pregnant Australian woman – if there is such a thing as an ”average” pregnancy – could expect to see a midwife at least half a dozen times over nine months, as well as a doctor or a gynaecologist if she needed to. Under-five child deaths are almost unheard of, particularly deaths from preventable diseases.

This is not the case in many parts of the world. The tragic, preventable deaths of 9 million children every year is one of the world’s largest problems, and this week it has landed on Melbourne’s doorstep, where a UN health conference is under way at the Melbourne Conference Centre.

The conference, entitled Advance Global Health – Achieve the Millennium Development Goals, brings together more than 300 non-governmental organisations from more than 70 countries. Some 1500 delegates are exploring the challenges of meeting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) – the world’s blueprint for halving global poverty by 2015.

It is the beginning of a last ditch effort to get Millennium Development Goals 4 and 5 back on track for their 2015 target. The goals’ aim to slash child and maternal mortality rates. But despite some recent successes, there are still millions of mothers losing their children to preventable diseases before they turn five.

Melbourne was chosen to host the conference – only the third time it has been held away from New York — because the city is without peer in the field of child health. Melbourne is home to the Burnet Institute, the Nossal Institute, and the Royal Children’s Hospital – some of the world’s leading thinkers on saving children’s lives. It is also home to many of Australia’s leading charities in this field.

The knowledge these organisations can share is vital in combating this tragic situation. But the reality is that agencies like World Vision can’t turn back the tide on child mortality rates unless governments in both developing and developed countries start lifting their weight: overall global donor aid for maternal, newborn and child health accounts for only 3 per cent of global aid.

At present, there is no shortage of high-level declarations and commitments from donor countries, but in practice donor pledges on health have become a debased currency. It is politics, not poverty, that is killing the world’s children.

Only three weeks after the Melbourne meeting, the world’s leaders will gather at the UN General Assembly in New York to review progress towards the MDGs. There they have the opportunity to restore momentum to the fight on preventable child deaths.

At a global level, rich countries need to increase their commitment to health from the current level of $US16 billion a year to $US42.5 billion by 2015 if they’re to meet the health MDGs in all developing countries. To put this funding requirement in context, it is equivalent to just 4 per cent of the fiscal stimulus package announced by the G20 for 2009.

But it’s not just about aid volume. We also need to get smarter about how we spend our aid dollars on health. For example, a lot of the political energy and donor funding in recent years has been directed towards vertical programs to address specific diseases – particularly HIV, tuberculosis and malaria. These efforts have often yielded significant results – not least the more than 4 million people who are now receiving antiretroviral treatment for HIV and AIDS – and need to be sustained.

Yet at the same time, key causes of child deaths such as undernutrition, poor sanitation and lack of hygiene have been woefully neglected. For example, despite undernutrition being a factor in over a third of all child deaths, in 2007 donors allocated just 1.5 per cent of aid for health to nutrition. We have failed to prioritise family care within communities, reflecting the fact that in poor countries most antenatal, postnatal and child care activities take place in the community rather than a hospital.

This Melbourne conference is a critical moment for the world to set the fight against poverty back on track so we do not fail the world’s most vulnerable people. With the MDG end-date only five years away, the care of pregnant women in Victoria should already be a right shared by women the world over. Sadly for women like Opa though, until developed countries start demonstrating genuine political will to solve this problem, such care remains the domain of a privileged few.

Tim Costello is chief executive of World Vision.

http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/contributors/politics-is-killing-the-worlds-children-20100901-14n0z.html

NZ – New Early Childhood Degree Offered In 14 Regions Across NZ

Early childhood education needs well qualified and well-prepared teachers says Te Tari Puna Ora o Aotearoa / NZ Childcare Association (NZCA) Chief Executive Nancy Bell, as they ready for the launch of their new Bachelor of Teaching (Early Childhood Education) in 14 regions from Kaitaia to Dunedin.

“NZCA has been an established national provider of level 7 teacher education diplomas for many years. However, teachers increasingly see a degree as the entry level to their profession. An early childhood degree brings teachers into line with their primary and secondary counterparts.”

“As well as including the international theory and research underpinning the field, our degree has a unique Aotearoa focus which brings Māori and Pasifika knowledge to the foreground. Students learn while they work in centres, maintaining a strong relationship between theory and practice so our graduates are highly employable” says Nancy. “All of NZCA’s programmes are delivered on day-release schedule, students work four days a week and attend classes on one day with assignments completed outside of class.”

“ECE teachers need a qualification that is research informed if they are to stay up-to-date with the current thinking in early education. Many go on to higher degrees and we need this capability in a sector which currently serves over 180,000 children.”

“We are very proud to be able to offer this qualification in Kaitaia. We want to offer the opportunity for students to study face-to-face just about anywhere in the country. Students are inspired by the commitment of our organisation to high quality ECE and the feeling that together we are making a difference for young children, they find our lecturers passionate and knowledgeable and our classes supportive and welcoming.”

NZCA’s Academic Leader for the new Bachelor of Teaching, Lesley Rameka is very impressed with the qualification, “the degree is an amazing programme that is perfectly suited to New Zealand’s unique cultural landscape.”

Studying at one of NZCA’s 14 regional teaching bases is a great way to get qualified says Nancy, “Our well appointed teaching bases offer intimate class sizes, and a welcoming supportive learning environment. Students can access library and learning resources online 24/7 via our e-learning site.”

“We expect to take around 300 applicants nationwide into the first year with classes starting across the country from February 2011. Competition for places will be high despite the recent ECE funding changes.”

Applications for the Bachelor of Teaching (ECE) open on the 1st September. For more information on applying to study in 2011, call 0800 CHILDCARE or visit www.nzca.ac.nz

http://www.voxy.co.nz/national/new-early-childhood-degree-offered-14-regions-across-nz/5/61060

India – Govt has not done enough for child rights, says NCPCR

According to the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights, the state government has not done enough in the areas of food disbursement and right to education for children.

The NCPCR representatives had recently taken a stock of various schemes related to implementation of child rights which involved Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) and implementation of Right to Education (RTE).

“The state government has said that lot has to be done but what they have done is not enough,”said Shantha Sinha, the chairperson of the NCPCR.

The officials of the commission said that 44 per cent of the children in the state are malnourished and asked the state government to take urgent steps . “This is very grave issue as a little less than half of the children in the state are malnourished,” Sinha said.

The commission officials said there exists a lack of coordination between the health department and the social welfare department in implementation of the Integrated Child Development Scheme in the state. Sinha said the commission has learnt that a substantial number of posts in ICDS centers are vacant and at many places workers are handling double charge.

“We will conduct visits at various ICDS centers in the state in November to see what action has the government taken ,” said Shanta Sinha.

On implementation of the Right to Education Act for children from 6-14 years, the commission has urged the state government to come up with model state rules on the issue.

“The Right to Education requires participation of various departments like labour, tribal welfare and police. We have asked the chief secretary of the state to create a platform for departmental co-ordination,” said Kiran Bhatti, National Commissioner (RTE). The commission officials said they would conduct a field visit and a public hearing relating to RTE towards the end of this year.

Although RTE Act came into effect from April 1, the state government has not yet framed state model rules, create an advisory committee for RTE implementation and form commission for protection of child rights, said the commission.

“Being the monitors for implementation of the RTE, we have asked the state government to forward copies of all orders and circulars to us so that time to time we can give report to the Parliament,” said the NCPCR chairperson.

The commission officials have also asked the government to create a list of all children who are out of school and mapping of schools across the state.

“We have expressed our concern over the juveniles homes where we have heard that children are molested and sent to red light areas. The department of social justice and welfare have assured that they would look into such complains,” said a commission official.

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/govt-has-not-done-enough-for-child-rights-says-ncpcr/674827/0

Canada – Alward promises upping N.B. childcare spots

The Progressive Conservatives are promising thousands of new childcare spaces across the province if elected in next month’s election.

PC Leader David Alward announced his party’s childcare and early learning plan in Dieppe on Monday, a program that he said will increase the accessibility and affordability of daycare spaces.

The plan included a number of initiatives:

Bringing the number of childcare spaces to 30,000, an increase of 50 per cent.
Bringing the number of infant spaces to 2,100, an increase of 50 per cent.
Making childcare more affordable for families earning less than $30,000 a year.
Increasing the ceiling for the early learning and childcare subsidy to $55,000 from $42,000.
Questions on cost

The Progressive Conservatives estimate the promise will cost $35 million over four years.

The Tories are promising to increase the number of licensed childcare spots to 30,000 if elected on Sept. 27. (CBC)
Jody Dallaire, the executive director of the New Brunswick Child Care Coalition, has recommended the province boost the number of spaces to 30,000.

But the child care coalition has also demanded the provincial government increase the spending per licensed childcare space to $3,560 from $1,692.

The coalition’s estimates on the cost to expand the number of licensed childcare spaces greatly exceeds the Tory figure.

Dallaire said her statistics show that investment would cost $348.8 million over four years.

She said it would cost $67.6 million for the province to grow the number of licensed childcare spaces to19,000 in the first year and by the fourth year it would $106.8 million to achieve 30,000 licensed childcare spaces.

More access

The Tory leader said he would commit to ushering in a new equity program that would bring about better childcare access to families in rural areas, parents who work on different shifts or are in seasonal jobs, and children with special needs.

“By supporting middle-class working families and families in need, we will ensure that New Brunswickers struggling the most with high childcare costs receive some assistance, while at the same time, ensuring that more families have access to childcare,” Alward said in a statement.

The PCs also used the Monday event to commit to a new approach to finance childcare, “creating a more systematic approach.”

As well, a PC government would raise the level of training of childcare centre staff, according to Alward.

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/nbvotes2010/story/2010/08/30/nbvotes-alward-childcare-election-1151.html

Canada – Lots to gain from investment in early childhood education: study

Ontario’s decision to increase investment in early childhood education will provide a big boost to the provincial economy, according to a new study released Monday, however the extent to which the economy will benefit depends on how much the government is willing to spend.

The study was conducted by the private research firm, the Centre for Spatial Economics, on behalf of the Atkinson Centre for Society and Child Development at the University of Toronto. The firm was charged with studying the economic impacts of a 2009 report authored by Dr. Charles E. Pascal for the Dalton McGuinty government, and offers 20 recommendations on how to improve education for children up to 12 years old.

Pascal’s plan is multi-layered: a school-board delivered full-day/full-year learning program for four- and five-year-olds; extended day and year-round programming for 6-12-year-olds; and expanded access to community programs for children up to three years old.

The study found that should the Ontario government implement all of Pascal’s recommendations, it will do more to create jobs and increase the province’s economic output than investments in any other economic sector.

Investing in full-day schooling for four- and five-year-olds will deliver an immediate return of $2.02 for every $1 invested in operations and $1.47 for every $1 invested in capital infrastructure, the study says. Every $1 million spent on early learning and child care creates 29 jobs – a third more than investing a similar amount in the construction industry. Moreover, every $1 million invested for new and renovated classrooms produces 20 jobs.

Pascal’s report was released during the recession and due to economic constraints, Ontario’s government has stalled on fully implementing it. If all the key elements of Pascal’s plan are not in place, the benefits are reduced, says Robert Fairholm, a partner at the Centre for Spatial Economics and lead author of the study.

“(The recession) made the government cautious,” he said. “The question then remains whether this is the first step of many in the implementation of the full system, or whether this is one step and that’s it.”

Aside from economic benefits, investment in child care and learning is associated with improved academic achievement and higher future employment earnings for students – providing the government with a higher tax base. The study says increased childcare spending results in fewer grade repetitions, less need for special education and lower high school drop out rates, resulting in more students entering university.

Children are also less likely to smoke as teenagers and as adults if enrolled in what the study says are “quality early childhood programs.”

http://www.globaltvedmonton.com/Lots+gain+from+investment+early+childhood+education+study/3460713/story.html

UAE – Adventures in babysitting

Managing the financial demands of nursery care is a struggle for many working parents.

But for Maria Le Roux, a mother of two, it’s not only a monetary burden but also an emotional issue.

The 36-year-old South African, who earns Dh32,000 a month as a human resources team leader for an Abu Dhabi-based oil and gas company, spends Dh5,300 a month on childcare.

While husband Martin commutes to his Dh35,000 a month job as an electronics systems engineer at Dubai International Airport, Mrs Le Roux, who has been in the UAE for 12 years, drops her four-year-old daughter, Zoe, at a Dh1,800 a month nursery in Al Mushrif.

But the childcare costs don’t end there. Because she cannot leave work to pick up her daughter in the afternoon, she spends an additional Dh1,500 a month on a driver and Dh2,000 a month on a nanny to care for Zoe and the couple’s 17-month-old son, Jean-Marc, after nursery.

It’s a roller coaster of a day for the mother and daughter, but Mrs Le Roux says she has little choice.

“There is a financial need for me to work and send my daughter to nursery,” she says. “Life is increasingly expensive here and if I don’t work we wouldn’t save anything in this country.

“Once I’ve paid the child-care costs, the Dh19,000 for our four-bed villa, the utility bills and the shopping, my salary quickly disappears. But I need stimulation, so I want to work and there are very few well-paid part-time jobs out there.”

When Zoe moves to primary school in September, Mrs Le Roux faces even more expenses as her son will start nursery at the same time.

“I’ll be paying nursery fees as well as Dh38,000 [a year] for school and my driver wants to charge Dh2,500 [a month] to pick them both up, so I don’t know what I’ll do.”

Mrs Le Roux’s situation is not unique. With the credit crunch still very much on, more mothers are returning to work to make ends meet at home.

In the past, nurseries traditionally closed by noon and were shut during the holidays, but the increased demand for year-round care has prompted extended hours and some institutions now stay open for 12 hours.

But returning to work also means earning enough to cover the childcare costs, with nurseries charging anywhere from Dh30,000 to Dh65,000 plus for year-round care depending on the child’s age and the number of hours they attend the school.

Hummingbird Nursery in the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) offers a 12-hour service from 7am to 7pm year round at a cost of Dh66,480 a year. But despite the hefty price tag, the demand is there.

“We look after 50 children and offer long hours for the convenience of parents,” says Kieny Watts, the general manager of Hummingbird. “Because we are located in DIFC, mothers can pop in during their breaks and some come to breastfeed, too. And while 75 per cent of our children stay from nine to four in the afternoon, some stay 12 hours a day.”

Hummingbird opened last March, but it was not the first Dubai nursery to offer an all-year programme.

Jumeirah International Nursery in Dubai, which takes children from six weeks to four years, has accommodated working parents for several years and only opens their baby class to working parents.

“Fifty per cent of our parents both work and while we’ve always accommodated working parents with extended hours and summer camps, we introduced the all-year programme to reduce the fees for full-time workers,” says head teacher Janet Thompson, who has run the nursery since 2001.

“I’ve seen a huge jump in the number of working mums in the last five years and since the credit crunch hit, there have been more mums trying to get back into the workforce just to sustain their lifestyle. I used to stand at the door and watch alot of mums go off to the gym whereas now they’re off to work.”

Lisa Hollis, a teacher and mother-of-two from the UK, has been sending her two-year-old daughter, Evie, to the nursery from 7.30am to 5pm since January last year at a cost of Dh12,850 a term to enable her to work at a nearby secondary school. She plans to send her four-month-old daughter, Olivia, to the institution in September, which will increase the term’s fees to Dh25,080 with a 5 per cent sibling discount.

“I never liked the idea of keeping Evie at home with a maid; I wanted a more sociable environment,” says Mrs Hollis, who has been in the UAE for five years. “And she really loves it and goes off happily every day.

“Next year will be expensive for us. We sat down and worked out the possibilities of whether I should stay at home or not, but I earn Dh17,185 a month and even though we will shell out Dh75,240 in fees, we would still lose Dh130,000 if I quit work.”

While finding a nursery to accommodate her working hours was relatively easy for Mrs Hollis, the process is not always straightforward.

Of the 210 UAE nurseries registered on the Ministry of Social Affairs online portal – 78 of those are in Dubai and 41 are in Abu Dhabi – many still close during the holidays, which increases the demand for nurseries with extended hours.

“We have a huge waiting list because very few Abu Dhabi nurseries offer afternoon programmes like we do,” says Jo Shaban, the managing director of Bright Beginnings Nursery, which has branches in Al Mushrif and Al Merhaba. “We asked our parents what they wanted and extended the day by two hours about three years ago.”

Nimo Abdi, a British mother of two, moved to Abu Dhabi with her husband, Adam, a director of sales and marketing for a hotel chain, last September and waited four months for places at Bright Beginnings for her son Zain, three, and daughter Nawal, two.

“Finding somewhere that could accommodate my hours was hard,” says Mrs Abdi, who works in human resources for the British Embassy and spends more than Dh40,000 a year on nursery care.

“The fees take up most of my Dh11,000 salary but if I take a career break, it will make it harder to get back into the workforce later on.

“And though my husband’s Dh25,000 package comes with schooling, housing, car and health insurance, it doesn’t cover nursery fees. The hotel industry is not that secure at the moment, so it’s good to know my salary is there to fall back on.”

But long hours away from home for both parents and children can leave little quality time together, while parents also have to deal with the emotions of leaving their child in someone else’s care.

“I always feel guilty leaving them,” says Mrs Le Roux. “That never stops and it only gets worse when the second child comes along. We don’t have a family life at all during the week. I get home around six, feed and bath the kids and put them to bed and that’s it.

“Sometimes I think, ‘maybe I should work for less’, but then you’ve got the financial stress of how to make ends meet. I live here to make life better financially, so my plan is to make the emotional sacrifice now and then return home in two years’ time for a better quality of life.”

Mrs Shaban, from Bright Beginnings, says the nursery does everything possible to help parents who struggle with the separation.

“We encourage our working mums to bring their kids in at least a month before they go to work to get them settled,” she says. “And we allow parents to drop in whenever they can during the day, especially if a mum is still breastfeeding.”

But for some parents who both want to work, simply finding a nursery they can afford is a problem.

Marie Macmillan, a British mother of two and former sales manager, pulled her children out of nursery at the end of 2008 because the fees swallowed up her Dh7,000 salary.

“The fees shot up by 33 per cent and there was no point working at all,” she recalls. “To send both of them cost Dh6,000 a month and on top of paying for the hire car I needed to get to work and nursery, there was nothing left.

“Even though I was upset at the time, I now have a fantastic relationship with my children and I wouldn’t have missed that for the world.”

Mrs Macmillan, who arrived in the UAE in 2005, may have gained some valuable time with her three-year-old daughter and 20-month-old son, but some mothers have too much time with their children.

“I was very depressed when I took time off and stayed at home for six months,” says Mrs Abdi. “I needed a break and so did they. Working makes me a better mum because I look forward to seeing them at the end of the day and they definitely get more out of nursery because there’s so much going on.”
http://www.thenational.ae/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100612/PERSONALFINANCE/706119938&SearchID=73401455364043

NZ – Kindergarten Committed To 100% Qualified Teachers

Delegates attending the New Zealand Kindergartens (NZK) annual conference held in Wellington this weekend were unanimous in their commitment to 100% qualified and registered teachers in kindergartens.

They called on government to reinstate the target for all early childhood education centres to employ 100% qualified teachers, and to reinstate funding to support services to reach and maintain that target.

NZK is the umbrella organisation representing twenty nine kindergarten associations covering 430 kindergartens nation-wide and is committed to providing high quality education for all young children.

“Kindergarten employs qualified teachers because we know they make a significant difference,” said Clare Wells, NZK Chief Executive. “The research is unequivocal – quality early childhood education has long term social, cultural and economic benefits for children, their families and the nation. Qualified teachers are a key indicator of quality.”

Currently, early childhood education centres receive government funding at different rates, depending on their proportion of qualified teachers. Those employing 100% fully registered and qualified teachers, like kindergarten, receive the highest funding rate. The budget cuts announced in May will see funds taken away from services where more than 80% of teachers are fully qualified. This will affect over 2,000 services and includes all NZK affiliated kindergartens.

“Almost all funding to kindergartens comes from the government and as a not-for-profit service, that funding goes directly to supporting high quality education in kindergarten,” says Clare Wells.

“It is baffling that the government sees fit to slash funding to the sector at the same time as it prioritises increasing participation in early childhood education and lifting school achievement. If the government genuinely wants to achieve these goals, it would make sure there were high quality services in every community.

“We know investing in early childhood education is a significant investment in our future.”

http://www.voxy.co.nz/national/kindergarten-committed-100-qualified-teachers/5/60722

NZ Protesters say early childhood cuts will hit communities

The organisers of a protest rally against planned government cuts to early childhood education funding, say the implications will be devastating for learning centres, families and communities.

More than 350 campaign postcards were signed on Saturday afternoon as teachers, parents and their children marched in central Tauranga.

The manager of Matua Plunket Kindergarten, Tracy Giacon, says the public does not realise how much the funding cuts will increase the prices that parents and caregivers will have to pay to send children to services with a greater proportion of qualified staff.

One Tauranga centre says it faces a shortfall of more than $100,000, which means it is considering job cuts and price rises.

Another rally organiser, Nadine Hansen of Papamoa Coast Kindergarten, says the cuts will widen social inequity.

“Parents that can afford it will be able to pay for child care but there will be a lot of parents who can’t.”

The union, the New Zealand Educational Institute, says axing four hundred million dollars of funding from February next year will affect more than 90 thousand children.

http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/55418/protesters-say-early-childhood-cuts-will-hit-communities

Canada – Unemployable people likely product of education system

Canada could slip into Third World status if its education system is not reformed to produce innovative and creative graduates who can compete globally, say experts responding to the latest report from the Canadian Council on Learning.

“The education system that Canada has is going to lead us to produce more and more people who are chronically unemployable,” said futurist Richard Worzel, who studies societal trends and patterns to help clients plan for the future. “What this means for the country is the gradual slip into Third World status.”

The Canadian Council on Learning (CCL) spent five years studying Canada’s education system from the preschool to post-secondary level and reports that, compared with other industrialized countries, Canada is falling behind in many key areas, and that is creating a national knowledge disadvantage.

“In the future, countries will compete on the basis of their collective brains,” said Worzel, whose clients include Ford, IBM, Bell Canada Xerox and Nortel.

He said within a generation, the economies of highly industrialized countries will be divided into three types of workers:

- Gold collar workers, who are the creators and innovators in society;

- Menial labourers, who work for low wages, are paid hourly and are often on contract;

- and the unemployable, who have no marketable skills and cannot find work.

Among its findings, the independent, non-profit research council noted in the report released Wednesday that Canada has no single measurable national goal, benchmark or assessment of achievement for any phase of education.

Investments in early childhood education in the country are among the lowest of the Organization for Economic Co-operation countries (OECD), which has resulted in 25 per cent of five-year-olds entering the education system poorly prepared.

Canada also ranks low among OECD countries in the number of graduates in science and engineering, who are key drivers of productivity.

Moreover, 42 per cent of Canadian adults have what the council considers “low” levels of literacy, meaning they “perform below the internationally accepted minimum considered necessary for participation in a knowledge society.”

Paul Cappon, president and chief executive officer of CCL, said Canada is not setting the conditions for future success.

He agrees with Worzel that Canada risks falling behind such formerly underdeveloped countries as India, Brazil and China — “and it’s no accident it’s these countries that are buying up our big firms,” he said.

Cappon pointed out that Canada is the only country in the world that doesn’t have a federal ministry of education.

Moreover, the European Union has integrated the education and training systems of its members states, he said. So much so that high school students in France and Germany have the same history lessons.

However Penny Milton, CEO of the Canadian Education Association, a pan-Canadian research group, questions whether a national strategy will somehow produce the kind of learning system that the CCL is calling for.

She said the country needs to focus on the nature and quality of teaching and not necessarily on national benchmarks.

“We need to not only measure whether students can read and write and do math but to be experienced problem solvers,” she said.

Milton added that Canada educates its most able students just as well as any other country. However, the key is to improve the levels of equity among all Canadians.

“These kinds of changes are fundamental,” she said. “They are not achieved by broad-scale policies, but by policies that enable teachers and schools to actually focus on new approaches.”

http://www.vancouversun.com/life/Unemployable+people+likely+product+education+system/3445780/story.html