29.5% of parents earning too little to raise a child
A high percentage of 29.5% of parents are earning monthly incomes of only R6001 to R9000, deemed too low and alarming as resources to raise a child are very costly, according to findings from a research study done by theInstitute of Early Childhood Development.
On Saturday, the Institute of Early Childhood Development (IECD) hosted its second nationalearly childhood care and education forum for this year at the Seychelles Institute of Teacher Education (Site).
The aim of the forum was to share findings of the research study on early learning readinessassessment of children aged three to four years old in registered and unregistered child caresettings and discuss the implications for childminders, day care operators, crèches,and parents.
The research started in 2019 and was conducted for over a period of two years. Overall the assessment conducted by the IECD in 2021 saw the participation of 1,195 children who were expected to start kindergarten that year. The assessment was conducted in collaboration with the Ministry of Education as the regulator for daycare services.
Egbert Benstrong, the consultant for the assessment of the early learning readiness, presented the results at the forum in the presence of IECD chairman, Captain David Savy, IECD chief executive Shirley Choppy, principal secretary for educational services Merna Eulentin, principal secretary for education sector development department John Lesperance, IECD staff, child minders and parents.
When it started in 2019 the study included only registered childminders, in 2020 the research expanded to include day careoperators and in 2021 an attempt was made to includeall children who were attending kindergarten or pre-school.
The objective of the assessment was to realign policies and programmes for the holistic development of children from 0 to seven years, the national standard on childminding regulations to monitor children’s progress among other standards in home-based childcare settings and ascertain the level of readiness of children as they progress to kindergarten and formal schooling. The assessment also aimed to identify children who might need and benefit from intervention programmes.
For the overall coverage there were potentially 1,251children ‒ 49.1% female and 50.9% male. Mr Benstrong said “this shows a fantastic balance of access to educational services between male and female.”
Of the total, 40.3% attended day care, 22.4% in registered childminding and 37.3% in unregistered childminding. Unregistered childminding includes care provided by relatives or other people not formally registered as a business.
The relationship that came out from the assessment results is that 86% of children have a close relationship with the mother and 9% with the father, which Mr Benstrong says is quite normal. However, Mr Benstrong noted that the most alarming figure that came out of the assessment is that the highest percentage of 29.5% of parents was earning a monthly income of R6001 to R9000. He said the figure is alarming as resources to raise a child are costly, coupled with the high cost of living.
Mr Benstrong also acknowledged that there is a higher percentage of childminders aged between 50 to 70 years, compared to 20years to 35 years old. He stated that this showssomething must be done to attract younger people to take up childcare services.
For his part, Captain Savy said the assessment is to establish a new national baseline and measure parental engagement and how this impacts on the outcomes. He added that children who are prepared effectively for school, focus on learning and development and that schools that are effectively ready provide for optimum children’s learning and development as well as prepare families, closest environment provides support for the children for early learning and development.
The methods used for the assessment were mainly observation checklist for the children, questionnaires for care providers and the parents. These included sampling from centre-based daycare, home-based daycares for both registered and unregistered childcare for all children attending kindergarten or pre-school in 2022. The take away from the assessment is to improve and better the services and care given to children for the future.
Courtesy: Marla Simeon (Nation.sc)
