According to Britain’s state nurseries teachers, negligence of the early childhood education sector by the government has led to a financial crisis. The instructors are gearing towards petitioning the prime minister in a bid to salvage the institutions.
Downing street march for early childhood education funding
Education stakeholders, including learners, head-teachers, and guardians will march together at Downing Street on 2nd March to agitate for more funds to the nurseries. The move seeks to secure the long term smooth running of early childhood education schools.
The early childhood education schools are managed like other schools with a team of specialists deployed despite lacking similar amounts of funding.
When short term funds stop on April 21st, these institutions will lose a third of their budget estimates, according to the National Education Union (NEU).
Bousted Mary, the current NEU general secretary issued a warning of a looming crisis that would follow from unclear commitments for funding in the long term.
Mary insisted that the perfect practice by the government was to run the early childhood education schools efficiently with proper funding.
Early childhood education funds for low-income families
She reiterated that the early age institutions are beacons of excellence especially in the areas with low-income families and closing them would devastate the families. Boris Johnson and the UK government should ensure continued funding of the institutions to ensure smooth operations.
According to Rachel Gillet, a headteacher at one government-sponsored nursery in Warwickshire remarks that even after cutting down costs, there still existed deficits, a position that leaves him at the sandpit.
Due to inadequate funds, Rachel says hiring qualified staff remained a dilemma and the only option left was to give short-term contracts to instructors at the institutions. A spokesperson from the Education department emphasized the importance of funded schools, especially in low-income neighborhoods.
In the 2020-21 fiscal year, the early childhood education sector will take up to 60 million Euros in funding.
Featured image credits: Pixabay
