Excerpts from the report:
For the first time in Québec, we have a detailed and representative
portrait of the quality of daycare experienced on a daily basis by children 0 to 5 years of age in government-regulated daycares (i.e. Centres de la petite enfance &emdash; CPEs, home daycares and private daycares). This is being provided by the Enquête québécoise sur la qualité des services de garde éducatifs (Québec Survey on the Quality of Educational Daycare), also known as Grandir en qualité 2003. It is helping identify and better define measures likely to maintain and improve the quality of educational daycare in light of the strengths and weaknesses observed.
The results of this survey are timely given the context of the rapid development of early childhood daycares in combination with the implementation of the educational program by the ministère de l'Emploi, de la Solidarité sociale et de la Famille (MESSF) (Ministry of Employment, Social Solidarity and the Family). It fulfills both the need for information expressed by the daycare network and the recommendation of the Auditor-General to evaluate the quality of daycare provided to children and families.
Many studies in the field of early childhood have shown that the quality of daycare plays a key role in child development in the first few years of life.This reinforces the utility and pertinence of the results of the Grandir en qualité survey.
The survey was conducted by the Institut de la statistique du Québec (ISQ) (Québec Institute of Statistics) in partnership with educational daycare associations, university researchers and the MESSF (who funded it). A detailed report on the survey was published in June 2004.
The results are also being published in three summary reports, highlighting the main findings of the survey in Childcare Centre daycares (installations de CPE), home daycares (coordinated by CPEs) and private daycares. This summary report is primarily addressed to people who work in Childcare Centre daycares, be
they managers, administrators, pedagogical consultants, program
coordinators or educators. It can also provide useful information
for parents who have children in these daycares.