Canadian Early Childhood Excellence and Equity Issues
This week’s class discussions and assignments are based around excellence and equity of care and education for young children and families. In corresponding with Don Giesbrecht, CEO of the Canadian Child Care Federation (CCCF), I have been able to better understand Canadian issues relating to excellence and equity in the early childhood field. Mr. Giesbrecht shared with me the many inequities that Canadian children and families experience due to inconsistent provincial and territorial policies and funding, lack of accountability of fund transfers from the federal government, insufficient spaces compared to the need, and lack of a national policy for early childhood services. In addition, Mr. Giesbrecht shared that a prevalent issue across Canada in our early learning environments is hiring and retaining skilled professionals to work with children and families (D. Giesbrecht, personal communication, July 29, 2014).
The difficulty in this last area of inequity lies in the low wages that these professionals receive for the work they do. Mr. Giesbrecht points out that other careers that require the same responsibilities, skills, and education as early childhood workers have much higher wages. Mr. Giesbrecht states that with less pay, early childhood workers often leave their job resulting in a high turnover of personnel. This turnover directly affects the quality of programming in a negative way. Mr. Giesbrecht suggested that I visit the Manitoba Child Care Association’s (MCCA) website in order to understand some of the work that this province has done in the area of wages and benefits for early childhood workers (D. Giesbrecht, personal communication, July 29, 2014).
Manitoba childcare centers have a difficult time recruiting employees with the required qualifications set by The Community Child Care Standards Act. Many qualified early childhood professionals will choose to work in the public school system where they are better compensated. In addition, the attempt to create new childcare spaces makes this challenge even greater as the need for more qualified personnel increases. According to the Child Care Human Resources Sector Council (2009 as quoted by the MCCA, 2013), difficulty in recruitment of workers is due to low wages.
The Manitoba Child Care Association reiterates Mr. Giesbrecht’s statement that low wages makes it difficult to recruit and retain qualified personnel. This causes a high turnover of personnel that ultimately has a negative effect on programming. Good wages and working conditions are directly related to higher job satisfaction, lower staff turnover, developmentally appropriate programming, nurturing relationships, and higher language development in children (Doherty, 1995, as quoted by MCCA, 2013 ).
The MCCA suggests that care centers use the MCCA salary guideline when compensating their employees as a way to recruit and retain early childhood professionals. They also suggest that an employee’s education and experience be taken into account in determining salary. The MCCA salary scale outlines different job titles and responsibilities as well as minimum and maximum salaries for each. The Association also makes the recommendation to include a benefits package as a part of compensation and outlines some suggestions in this area as well.
The Market Competitive Salary Guideline Scale published by the Manitoba Child Care Association gives recommendations for salary increases and gives credit to Honorable Jennifer Howard, Minister of Family Services and Consumer Affairs for making it possible for centers to enhance wages. In July of 2012 and 2013, Howard increased operating grants and new maximum parent fees which resulted in a further $17 million in revenue.
With a lack of childcare spaces already an issue in Manitoba and throughout Canada, it is difficult for families to find a quality program for their child. I had some concern that increasing parent fees was going to add to this challenge for many parents who would be unable to afford these childcare facilities. Without childcare, families, particularly single parents, may find it very difficult to find work in order to support their families. This in turn continues the cycle of poverty that many Canadian families may be experiencing. With further research, I discovered that the fee increase mentioned earlier was a maximum of $1 per age group and that low-income families may be eligible for subsidy through a childcare fee subsidy program. This topic has certainly assisted me in deepening my understanding of the difficult task it must be to create and maintain high quality programming while keeping family costs down. As early childhood educators, we must continue to advocate for these operating costs to be better funded by provincial and federal governments.
References
Manitoba Child Care Association. (2013). Market competitive salary guideline scale. Retrieved from http://mccahouse.org/documents/MCSGS2013-2014.pdf
Childcare Resource and Research Unit and the Canadian Union of Postal Workers. (n.d.). Finding quality child care: A guide for parents in Canada. Retrieved from http://www.findingqualitychildcare.ca/index.php/manitoba
Early Childhood Studies 
Hi Sandra, thank you for sharing information about excellence and equity of care and education in Canada. In your post, the main factor that affects the quality of programs is the wage for teachers, which is also the main concern in China to recruit and retain qualified teachers. Low wages and working conditions make early childhood teachers hesistate to stay in this field because they also have to economically support their own families and thus leave this field to find a better-paid job. I hope in China funds for early childhood can be increased and create a better working conditions for qualified teachers so that we can make a better early childhood education.
Hello Sandra,
It is great that you have had successful contact. Mr. Giesbrecht sounds like a wonderful source of information. I have wondered how the US compared with Canada. It is a shame that Canadian children suffer those inequities, much like children in the US. The low wages for childcare workers is too bad, it is no wonder that teachers and workers cannot be retained.
Sandra,
Wage seems to be an important factor both here and in Canada. This is a huge problem that must be resolved in order to reduce equity. Until compensation matches credentials there will always be that gap. It is hard to keep educators in the early childhood field because it simply does not pay effort. I have to also resort to public school system because there was no way I could afford to live off of what I was getting paid as an assistant director of a corporate daycare center. This is a sad but true reality.
Compensation does make a difference in the quality of early childhood education and programs. I agree that education and experience should be taken into account as well but something more has to be done to keep professionals motivated so that they do not leave their job.