Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 21 March 2023
932. Deputy Matt Carthy asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth if he intends to restore the title of early childhood care and education rather than early learning and care, considering the former title is recognised across the EU and internationally and reflects the important role that providers play in the education of children; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13012/23]
View answerThe term “early learning and care” was first used in First 5, the Whole-of-Government Strategy for Babies, Young Children and their Families, 2019-2028. First 5 adopted the term early learning and care, or ELC, to define: “any regulated arrangement that provides education and care from birth to compulsory primary school age – regardless of the setting, funding, opening hours or programme content – and includes centre and family day-care; privately and publicly funded provision; pre-school and pre-primary provision.” This precise definition is used in the EU Council Recommendation on High-Quality Early Childhood Education and Care Systems to define “early childhood education and care” (ECEC) and so both terms have the same meaning.
The term was chosen as it recognises the inseparability of learning and care. High-quality care includes learning, and high-quality learning is dependent on care. ELC is a term that can be broadly understood by all, helping to ensure that the nature and value of this work will continue to gain wider recognition.
“Childcare” has in the past been the term most commonly used in Ireland, yet this term is not in line with current thinking in relation to the educational role played by the sector. In developing First 5, my Department looked internationally to other countries that have experienced similar challenges and found that in a number of English-speaking countries the move from “childcare” to the term “early learning and (child)care” (used in Scotland, Australia, Canada and the United States), contributed to a change in the public’s perception of what it is the sector does.
It was the ambition in First 5 to use a term that would describe the importance of the sector’s work and that could be used with consistency across different stakeholder groups. First 5 therefore aimed to move official terminology from “childcare” to “early learning and care”. The term "early learning and care" highlights that learning starts before schooling, reinforces the fact that learning and care are inseparable, focuses on the educational experience from the child's perspective, and is in keeping with the Aistear early childhood curriculum framework and its promotion of the child as a co-constructor of knowledge, which is so important in high-quality early education. Indeed, it is the term ‘learning’ and not ‘education’ that permeates the Aistear curriculum framework.
The term “early learning and care” also chimes with the OECD’s description of settings for early childhood as "a community of learners, where children are encouraged to participate and share with others, and where learning is seen as primarily interactive, experiential and social" (OECD, Starting Strong II).
