The Ministry of Education is planning an amendment to the law that will force local governments to offer nursery places for children aged three and up. Instead of daycare groups, younger children would start going to daycare.
There is a shortage of nursery places in municipalities near Tallinn. On Monday, for example, two new groups of nursery schools in two modules will open at Loo. For the moment this is a relief, but queues at nurseries in the municipality of Jõelähtme probably won’t disappear anytime soon.
The Ministry of Education considers the elimination of queues at nursery schools to be the most important change in the planned change in the law.
“Pre-school education for children up to three years old will be a childcare service. Childcare will therefore be a curriculum requirement, and all this municipal and private provision of childcare will take place on a existing kindergartens in municipalities will be childcare services with a common denominator, but will continue to operate according to the same principles,” said Maila Rajamets, head of the ministry’s early childhood education sector.
The life of municipalities becomes easier, because they no longer need to hire a teacher with a higher education qualification to look after kindergarten children, a babysitter is enough.
However, the requirements for private savings are becoming more stringent. From now on they will also have to have a CV and only those who have studied to be babysitters will be able to look after the children. But they are in short supply.
“In the key of the new law, we have a question: why the qualification requirements for a teacher assistant establish that he can have a profession of nanny or pedagogical skills, but babysitters do not have this. There is no such option even if employed under a contract of fixed-term work, otherwise there is no alternative,” said Mari Kummer, CEO of the Estonian Child Care Union. .
More time will be given for the training of babysitters, but according to Kummer it is not yet clear whether the state will increase the order for training babysitters or whether nurseries will have to train them at their own expense. Another important change is that the bill stipulates that the child must receive a place within two months of submitting the application.
“The vast majority of children are placed in the so-called kindergarten queue immediately after birth. Some want a place for a one and a half year old child, others for a two year old, three-four-five year old” , and not it is possible to decide after two months that in three or four years someone will get a place in a certain kindergarten,” said Andrus Umboja, head of Jõelähtme village.
The two-month requirement is justified in the case of a change of residence, but in other cases Umboja believes it is correct that the child is assigned a place in kindergarten six months before arriving at the children’s institution.
The Ministry of Education hopes that once the bill becomes law, lawsuits against municipalities will end, because a child can also be offered a place in a private nursery or nursery. An income tax refund should also apply to the training costs of private institutions.
2024-01-03 16:37:00
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