An arts and crafts class in a daycare centre. Anitta Pakanen, the chairperson of the Early-Childhood Teachers’ Union of Finland, has warned that the government’s plan to reduce the planning obligations of daycare centres and municipalities will erode the quality of early-childhood education in Finland. (Emmi Korhonen – Lehtikuva)
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THE QUALITY of Finnish early-childhood education will erode if the government moves forward with its plan to scale back the planning obligations of education providers, warn the Finnish National Agency for Education (OPH) and the Early-Childhood Teachers’ Union of Finland (VOL).
Prime Minister Petteri Orpo’s (NCP) government is set to scrap the obligations to draft municipality-specific early-childhood education plans and daycare-specific non-discrimination plans.
“The quality of early-childhood education will decline, that much is obvious,” Anitta Pakanen, the chairperson at VOL, stated to Helsingin Sanomat on Tuesday.
With the plans supporting day-to-day work at daycare centres, their removal could create problems particularly at daycare centres that have already struggled with management-related challenges, according to Pakanen.
OPH believes scrapping the planning obligations would run afoul of the government programme, the action plan for combating racism and promoting equality, as well as international human rights agreements.
“Removing the requirement to promote [non-discrimination] would also send a clear message from the Finnish government that non-discrimination is not an important value and that not all children and guardians are equally valuable,” the agency slammed in its comment on the government proposal.
Minister of Education Anders Adlercreutz (SFP) argued that scrapping the requirement will not undermine efforts to promote non-discrimination, as the efforts would simply be centralised to municipalities.
“Of course it can’t mean that a single person will draft these plans in isolation in an office,” he said to Helsingin Sanomat on Tuesday. “The organiser must know the needs and viewpoints that are relevant for their unit.”
OPH disagrees with the minister.
Drafting daycare-specific plans to promote non-discrimination is an important process that makes non-discrimination efforts more concrete to early-childhood education professionals, countered Heidi Ruonala, a lawyer at OPH.
Daycare centres were required to draft their own plans to promote non-discrimination by the government of Prime Minister Sanna Marin (SDP). The plans have to be finalised by next summer and take into account such factors as the beliefs, mother tongue and skin colour of children, whereas the equality plans focus exclusively on gender equality.
The Association of Finnish Local and Regional Authorities proposed to the government that both requirements be scrapped, in response to a government call for municipal stakeholders for ideas how to trim regulation in the municipal sector. The government, though, decided to only do away with the requirement for plans to promote non-discrimination.
“We’ve reviewed things from the standpoint of do they add an unreasonable amount of work relative to the benefits,” told Adlercreutz.
Also to be scrapped is the obligation of municipalities to devise local plans for early-childhood education. Dealing with elements such as care, instruction and play, the plans support staff with implementing the national early-childhood principles by laying down local implementation methods.
The plans are tremendously important for the day-to-day operation of daycare centres, said Pakanen from VOL.
“They reflect special local characteristics. For example, the sports and exercise possibilities may be different in Oulu, Helsinki and Utsjoki,” she illustrated to Helsingin Sanomat.
Aleksi Teivainen – HT
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Source: www.helsinkitimes.fi
