Save the Children: 'Not nearly enough' has been done to improve nursery education
Anastasia Zawierucha
| Save the Children
Responding to a landmark report analysing government efforts to increase social mobility over the last 20 years, Kevin Watkins, Chief executive of Save the Children said:
It’s nothing short of a scandal that in this day and age, so many of our children are falling behind in their learning from the start and left to stay behind throughout their lives.
We all know that unless we get education right in the early years of a child’s life, so many of them – especially the poorest – will struggle right through to their GCSEs and beyond; into the world of work and even in their relationships.
But while there has been a welcome government focus on providing free hours of nursery care, not nearly enough has been done to improve the quality of nursery education. When we have a shortage of 10,000 qualified nursery teachers and hundreds of thousands of children starting school are already behind their peers, it is time government made the quality of our nurseries a top priority.
If we truly want to be a fair and prosperous society, we need to start at the beginning and give every child – no matter what their background – the very best start in life. This means making sure that every nursery has a qualified early years teacher to give them the confidence and education they need to prosper and excel.
