Article Summary
Early Learning and Child Care in Saskatchewan: Past, Present and Future
Public Policy Paper by Martha FriendlyEarly learning and child care (ELCC) has received increasing attention in industrialized countries in the last two decades. Policy makers have recognized that equitable access to quality early childhood education and care can strengthen the foundations of lifelong learning for all children and support the broad educational and social needs of families. Therefore, many of the OECD countries have developed the policy and financing apparatus necessary to ensure widespread access to high quality early learning and child care programs. Unfortunately, Canada has fallen far behind international developments in early learning and child care. Its policy approaches to ELCC are regarded incoherent and ineffective, its ELCC programs are severely under-financed, and neither quality nor access is adequate.
This paper evaluates the current and future early learning and child care situation in Saskatchewan using key policy issues of access, quality and financing to place the province’s ELCC in the overall Canadian context. It points out that, despite its high rate of labour force participation rates for mothers with young children, a higher than national composition of young children with aboriginal identification, and a high child poverty rate, Saskatchewan has the fewest regulated child care spaces in Canada. Likewise, the provincial expenditure per child on regulated child care in Saskatchewan is the lowest after Alberta. Unlike most other provinces, however, Saskatchewan seems to have paid more attention to quality by considerably increasing its spending per regulated child care space in the last five years, and raising its early child care education requirements for ELCC staff.
With more funding promised under the Saskatchewan-Canada agreement of April 2005, the province needs to put together a provincial action plan, based on the principles of quality, universality, access, and developmental programming, with a clear vision and goals for ELCC. The challenges it is likely to face will include the conceptualization and delivery of care and education in one seamless service, and the establishment of more active roles for the provincial and federal governments in policy and financing.
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Policy Publication Details
| Author(s): | Martha Friendly; | ||
| Publisher: | Saskatchewan Institute of Public Policy [ Visit Website ] | ||
| Year Published: | 2005; | Publisher Type: | Research Institute |
| Publicly Available: | Yes | Research Focus: | Provincial; |
| Registration Required: | No | Language: | English |
| Payment Required: | No | Publication Format: | Adobe PDF |
Subjects / Categories:
Policy Articles / Children & Family / Daycare & Childcare
Policy Articles / Education / Preschool
Policy Articles / Children & Family / Daycare & Childcare / 2005
Policy Articles / Education / Preschool / 2005
Policy Articles / Children & Family
Policy Articles / Education
Keywords / Tags:
childcare; early learning; Saskatchewan; QUAD (quality; universality; accessibility; developmental); child care abroad; provincial social programs; international comparison; child poverty; aboriginal population; ;