Submission #2346

My response to our government on their decision to cut childcare funding:

I AM outraged , we are “resilient” ok so how far do you want to stretch this work force? I am absolutely livid and I speak for majority of educators: ” we are burnt out NOW as it stands with extra supports we have in place, we love our jobs and we love the children BUT when providing QUALITY care is of upmost priority and you are ripping away what we absolutely need to function day to day and we are asking for more support on top of that, you have no idea how a day to day runs in a childcare centre and before these decisions were finalized YOU should have talked to directors, educators, families and other management agencies surrounding childcare so you could get a clear picture of what QUALITY over QUANTITY would look like.

Continued staff burn out
Constant staff over turn
More child and staff incidents (injuries)
No programming time
No time to document child’s progress or take proper observations
Constant state of chaos
Children become stressed and anxious causing further child development concerns
Parents become stressed and concerned
Educators leaving the workforce completely

Our government doesn’t care about island children and families fake promises and misleading tactics.

Every single “classroom” should have nothing less then TWO full time educators, when NEEDED there should be funding set aside so centres can add additional support(SNA, IBI , Behavioural supports, trained and experienced) educators as needed in a timely manner, when educators take lunch and breaks there should be enough staff to cover those much needed breaks.

I hear this a lot and it’s not fair: we “chose” this line of work we need to adapt” we still deserve to be treated with every ounce of respect as any other career choice, and our children deserve every right to have the best care possible.

Signed,
A Mother( and Educator) of two boys who went through two licensed early years centres