Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 12 April 2017
367. Deputy Kathleen Funchion asked the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the number of early years services, both community and private, that have completed the full Aistear curriculum to date; and the number that have yet to complete the curriculum. [18671/17]
View answerAistear is the national curriculum framework for early childhood education. It was published in 2009 and resources have been made available through the NCCA (National Council for Curriculum and Assessment) to assist practitioners in early years settings in its implementation primarily through online access to the Aistear-Síolta Practice Guide. The curriculum framework is being implemented in many settings throughout the sector. However, a need for centralised support was identified in the IDG for Future Investment in Childcare in 2015.
As a result, the National Síolta-Aistear initiative (NSAI) was established in 2016. Its purpose is to build on implementation of the framework to date which has been supported by the national voluntary childcare organisations and the city and county childcare committees. The initiative is designed to provide central support and coordination of Síolta (The National Quality Framework for Early Childhood Education) and Aistear (The Early Childhood Curriculum Framework) implementation across the Early Years sector. This initiative involves the Department of Education and Skills, the Department of Children and Youth Affairs (DCYA) & NCCA and is funded by the DCYA. Two national coordinators have been appointed to oversee the initiative and 60 mentors have been trained to support early years settings to implement both Aistear and Síolta on a national basis.
The Aistear strand of the initiative aims to help practitioners gain the knowledge and skills required to develop their own emergent and inquiry-based curriculum informed by Aistear. In this way, the initiative will enhance the quality of pedagogy across early childhood settings and in doing so, better support children’s learning and development. A CPD programme in Aistear is being piloted by the NCCA in the first half of 2017 in 162 settings, with 401 practitioners participating in the pilot.
In addition to the NSAI, DCYA also provides funding to the National Voluntary Childcare organisations and childcare committees to undertake a range of quality improvement supports, guided by Síolta and Aistear.
