EXCERPTS

Re: Ontario tweaks controversial daycare regulations, May 10

Ontario has chosen yet another band-aid solution to assuage concerns about childcare in Ontario. Regulation changes — which were retracted after widely voiced criticism — have simply been tweaked and presented in a new light as a “pilot project.”

From my perspective, as an early childhood student, the problem with the “tweaks” is less the age grouping than the group size. A room with 24 children between the ages of 2 and 5 is absurd. With the staffs’ attention being pulled in so many directions, children will not receive the attention and responsive care that is a cornerstone of quality early childhood education and care, not to mention the implications for health and safety.  

Ontario needs to focus on creating policy and regulations that ensure universal, high-quality early childhood education care, not a quick fix to downplay concerns.

-Emily Harrison Smith, Toronto

I am dismayed by the misstep the Ministry of Education is making by “tweaking” the previously proposed childcare regulations instead of overhauling its childcare policy altogether. By hastily including a pilot project in the regulations, the province is sacrificing sound analysis and a rigorous policy making process for the sake of expediency and at the expense of quality.

In a province where an unregulated childcare provider was recently sentenced to six years in prison for manslaughter in a toddler’s death, the Ministry of Education should be even more concerned with getting it right.

Enough tweaking; we need to start building a high quality, universal childcare system.

-Bethany Grady, Registered Early Childhood Educator, Toronto

-reprinted from Toronto Star