Finian McGrath
Question:79. Deputy Finian McGrath asked the Minister for Education and Skills his views on correspondence (details supplied) regarding the early start programme. [4938/13]
View answerThursday, 31 January 2013
Questions (79)
Written answers
The Early Start programme was introduced in the mid 1990s and was a targeted intervention by the State in early childhood education. The introduction of universal pre-school provision (the ECCE scheme) in January 2010 marked a policy shift from targeted intervention to a universal scheme. Both the universal pre-school year and the Early Start programme are for children in the year prior to their enrolment in the primary school system.
The decision to revise the age criteria for the Early Start programme was taken because of the growing body of national and international research which indicates that children who start primary school at a later age have a higher level of school readiness than their younger peers (i.e., they display a greater ability to meet the task demands of school, such as being cooperative and listening to the teacher, and to benefit from the educational activities that are provided by the school). An example of such research in the Irish context is a recent study by University College Cork on Early Childhood Development in Cork City. The study found that the younger the child, the less ready they were for school.
I note the concerns that because the age range has changed, that parents will send their children straight to school and will not enrol them in the Early Start programme. However, based on the participation of children in the universal pre-school scheme, there is very little evidence that parents/guardians are opting out of a free pre-school programme to enrol their very young children in primary schools. It is also worth noting that the Department of Children and Youth Affairs subvent childcare places for children in Community not for profit pre-schools. Children can start attending their community pre-school at a much younger age than 3 years before transferring to the ECCE programme or to the Early Start programme. There are very few children who now enrol in Primary schools who haven't had a pre-school experience. Based on the evidence, I am not prepared to reverse the change to the age range for the Early Start programme.