Where Have All the Good RECEs Gone?  

Where have all the good RECEs gone? Why is it so difficult to hire and keep great RECEs? Good RECE supply staff are as rare as RECEs on the Sunshine List.

While our wonderful Community Colleges turn out many cohorts of Early Childhood Educators, I still hear child care operators in the GTA lamenting the dearth of professional, skilled people to care for and educate our children whose brains are at their maximum point of potential.

The following are some challenges to the system as I see it:

Who is studying ECE?

People who see ECE as a stepping stone to being a "real teacher"

People whose families think it will be an easy course. Any idiot can work with children. This point naturally stems from a widespread lack of respect for infants, toddlers, and young children as people. "Hey honey, don't know what to do after high school, got fired from your part time job? You were good at baby-sitting your cousin, take ECE!"

And some people who have a strong understanding of and respect for children.

Some people who wish for better environments and outcomes for children and love to be with them, all day long.

Where do the RECEs go?

The School Boards - in droves. The cream of the crop have left working in child care centres, home child care, family resource programs, community agencies, etc. to follow a proper pay cheque, benefits, comfortable working conditions, and maybe, just maybe, higher status and more respect.

There are myriad privately owned child care centres in the GTA of varying degrees of quality. Many pay about 13 or 14 dollars per hour. The staff may not get paid sick time, holidays, professional development, or even a staff room in which to have a coffee. You can pay an assistant even less so there are many RECEs working in large teams of untrained staff. This leads to a breakdown in best practice. Where am I getting this? Hearing stories from assistants and student teachers, and seeing it first hand sometimes. On a visit last year, I overheard an untrained staff scream at two year olds how disgusting they were, that the mess they made was disgusting and on and on until I stopped her. I called Children's Aid. This is not an environment in which a good RECE will stay long.

RECEs often go on to work in other fields where pay and working conditions are better.

RECEs often go back to university to learn more. After spending all that money, most will not choose to work in child care.

What can we do?

My dad always says, "You pay peanuts, you get monkeys." I hear the Ontario government wants to help supplement Early Childhood Educators' salaries by a dollar per hour next year. I hope it's done equitably and with lots of check and balances to ensure integrity of the operators of child care centres.

Beyond remuneration matters, will the Ontario Government's Modernization of Child Care lead to more stringent quality assessment? Better teacher/child ratios? Less ridiculous health and safety rules? Better working conditions for all early learning practitioners? Will the impact of the College of Early Childhood Educators' hard work,(www.college-ece.ca) Standards of Practice and Code of Ethics help lift practices across the province? Will the ongoing efforts of other professional bodies such as the AECEO (www.aeceo.ca) and the Family Supports Institute of Ontario (www.fsio.ca) help improve attitudes and education? Will strong improvements to policy by our Ministry of Education boost everyone up? Hope so! Then maybe we can find Good RECEs everywhere, especially interacting with our children; our future.

“Children must be taught how to think, not what to think.” 
― Margaret Mead

Early Learning in Uganda and Rwanda Day One and Two

Robyn, Nancy, Terry, Jo, Josephine

Play-based early learning and care is in the infancy stages in Uganda and Rwanda.  The old British colonial model of three children to a desk, sitting and memorizing facts and figures from a chalk board is beginning to evolve.  I was lucky enough to be invited by the Directors of Happy Hearts International School in Kampala, Generose Muhaya and Josephine Umuhoza Muhaya to help them with their dream for a school where children learn with happy hearts.  The experience taught me so much in so many ways.  There were many facets of the trip for me; the people and culture of East Africa, the early learning and care system and facilitating change, the day-to-day reality of life in a developing country,the glorious tea and coffee, the good work of Teen Challenge in Kampala, and the beauty, scars, and resilience of Rwanda.

Happy Hearts International School Ntinda, Uganda

Josephine is a new friend and a dear friend and I was excited to accompany her from Canada to Uganda to see her mother and family, and the nascent Happy Hearts, meet Generose and the staff.

From there the team grew to include my colleagues Nancy Mosey, the Executive Director of a thriving not-for-profit child care organization based in York Region, Dr. Jo Blay with a strong background in research and education, as well as a dear friend and colleague, Robyn Matthew. Robyn brought her art facilitation combined with a social service skills and background working with in the area of grief.  We were accompanied also by Bill Ord from the U.K. who has much experience working with youth and in engineering. 

We arrived into the small Entebbe airport late at night.  The warm equatorial air was a joy after leaving a severe Canadian winter.  We were put up at a hotel not far from the airport, due to the kindness of friends of Josephine.  I went to bed with a mosquito net around my bed, having a little Meryl Streep moment. (Out of Africa). 

I woke up and looked out my window and say greens and reds of Uganda – and monkeys who lived in the hotel grounds!  Jackfruit, mangoes, and avocadoes hung from the trees.  All the staff were friendly.

We relaxed until it was time to go to lunch and the Entebbe Zoo – which is more of a place for animals which have been rescued from poachers or other bad situations.   For lunch I had my first Ugandan beer – it is a major industry there.  Yum.  And fish, cassava, a peanut dish, beans and rice, and chicken. 

Then it was off to the zoo, which is on the shore of Lake Victoria.  We could hear the waves and smell the water.  

Generose comes to greet us at the Entebbe Airport