Politicians far too slow to understand importance of quality early childhood education and care
I’m not sure how many barbecues it’s stopping these days, but the issue you and I call childcare and the politically cool call ECEC – early childhood education and care – is still one of great concern to experts ranging from hard-headed economists to soft-hearted social workers, not to mention the odd parent.
From a narrowly economic perspective, childcare matters because any problems with it limit women’s participation in the paid workforce and economists have decided increasing the “participation rate” of women and older workers is a key to reducing the budgetary cost of an ageing population and to maintaining our rate of economic growth.
With girls now more highly educated than boys – and with the taxpayer having contributed significantly to funding that education – it’s been obvious for a few decades that it makes little sense to allow the conventions of a labour market designed for men to prevent women from participating fully in the workforce.