FIANNA FAIL will set up a national forum on early education and double spending on pre school education if returned to power, the party's education spokesman, Mr Michel Martin, has said.
Introducing a party position paper on early education yesterday, Mr Martin said pre school education was a "complete mess" at the moment, with up to eight Government Departments sharing the responsibility for a tiny budget of £5-£6 million. This was compared to total annual education expenditure of around £2 billion.
Under a Fianna Fail government, he said, there would be "one specific budget allocation" for early childhood services, and that allocation would be handled by the Department of Education.
Mr Martin said there was a serious imbalance at present between the Government's Early Start programme, which operates for pre school children in about 35 primary schools, and receives £2.5 million a year; and the 1,800 pre school playgroups under the umbrella of the Irish Pre Schools Playgroups Association, which between them received only about £2.1 million. He stressed that privately run playgroups had an important part to play in overall provision.
Mr Martin said many Early Start schools had been established in the same communities where existing pre school playgroups had been providing early education for more than 20 years, and the people involved in those groups felt angry that they had been ignored and dismissed without consultation.
He said he would also be seeking the improvement of infant teachers status, by greater access to accreditation and higher salaries. He noted that until recently payment of primary school teachers had been weighted in favour of those taking older classes, whereas all international research showed it was the years between four and six which were most critical for children.
He also opposed any Government plans to impose VAT at 21 per cent on early education services; promised recognition of the qualifications of Montessori teachers; and said a Fianna Fail government would set out a five year strategy to implement a State wide plan on early education and establish a national early education curricular framework.
Meanwhile, the threatened imposition of VAT on child minding services has been averted as the Minister for Finance, Mr Quinn, found a way to allow creches opt out of VAT on the grounds of public service, education and health.