Baby education 'absolute madness'A national curriculum for babies and toddlers has been dismissed as "absolute madness" by a parents group. Under the Childcare Bill, childminders would teach the curriculum to children "from birth" - with some worrying that it might be too prescriptive. From age three, children in childcare in England would learn rudimentary maths, language and literacy. The National Confederation of Parent Teacher Associations called the proposals "bizarre". Spokeswoman Margaret Morrissey said: "We are now in danger of taking away children's childhood when they leave the maternity ward. "From the minute you are born and your parents go back to work, as the government has encouraged them to do, you are going to be ruled by the Department for Education. "It is absolute madness." The proposals for the first three years of children's development give statutory force to existing guidelines, Birth to Three Matters, published two years ago. But the Professional Association of Nursery Nurses (PANN) also expressed concern. 'Different abilities' Tricia Pritchard, from PANN, said: "We hope that this will be age-appropriate and flexible as young children develop at different rates. "Children of the same age have different abilities." Deborah Lawson, former chair of PANN and now vice-chair of the Professional Association of Teachers, said: "We do need to have some guidelines and parameters but nothing that is too prescriptive." Children's Minister Beverley Hughes said the curriculum would indeed be flexible and "age specific". The Bill tells childcare providers to give a mixture of "integrated care and education from birth". Introducing it, Ms Hughes said: "We want to establish a coherent framework that defines progression for young children from nought to five. "We are not talking about sitting very young children in chairs and making them learn numbers and letters where that is inappropriate." Her department says the proposed Early Years Development Framework would be devised in consultation with those in the industry. It would "focus on meeting the individual needs of children and highlight the importance of learning through play". The government says research shows good quality childcare helps children develop faster socially and intellectually and do better once in school. The new framework would have the same compulsory legal force as the national curriculum for schools, Ms Hughes said. She said young children's learning deserved "parity" with that at primary and secondary level, but denied that this would be at the expense of play Last modified November 9, 2005 |