Before it all began

So I've started to look into the background of Aistear and where it came from and I cannot believe how young this sector really is in Ireland. I certainly went to pre-school and that wasn't today or yesterday ;-) and yet when you look into the policy and research behind Aistear it all seemed to grow out of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989) which we only ratified in 1992. Before we ratified the convention the Childcare Act 1991 was passed. Then there was sectoral silence as it were until 1998 when the Report of the National Forum for Early Childhood Education was pulished followed quickly by the White Paper on Early Childhood Education Ready to Learn in 1999, this was the same year that Children First was published. The following year the National Children's Strategy was published, followed by Ready Steady Play! A National Play Policy in 2004. An Early Childhood Care and Education Report 31 prededed the Childcare (Pre-School Services) Regulations 2006 which we all know and love, and finally Siolta was published in 2006 by the CECDE. I was quite shocked to realise the sector was so young and Siolta was so old in a way, considering the grand scheme of ECCE! I personally certainly hadn't heard about Siolta until the introduction of the ECCE Free Pre-School Year Scheme.

It is hard to believe that there are so little regulations and policy documents around Early Years in Ireland and that they have only started to emerge in the last 20 years. In looking back over the policy documents that have emerged it's strange to see the word 'education' used so often and yet the Pre-School and Childcare sector somehow fell under the remit of the HSE. It is shocking that Children First is a guideline or best practice document and not law. I wonder will we actually see the passing of the long awaited Child Care Bill / Amendment Act this year or will it be pushed to the back of political agendas again?

Anyway, I'm off on a tangent, it makes for interesting reading all this background on Aistear and really gives you a place to anchor the professionalism of the sector, where it comes from and where it's moving too. I'm looking forward to reading about the research carried out before the framework was settled upon and who those stakeholders were in agreeing  the framework.

This is my understanding so far on the research I've carried out but if I have misinterpreted anything or gotten it wrong I'd love some feedback! Thanks :-)

Néady
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