Multilingual Early Language Transmission (MELT) - Mercator ...

those of single parents, attend the provisions 4 or 5 days per week. Depending on the
wages of the parents, the government subsidizes 50-80% of the costs.
Play groups
Playgroup provisions are mainly aimed for children aged 2-4 years. Usually children
attend them 1 to 3 morning(s) per week or approximately 2,5- 3 hours. Playgroups
are financially supported by the municipalities. There are no structural national
financial resources for these provisions. Parents pay a contribution, this depends on
the municipality inquestion.
Childminders
Childminders are speaking Frisian, or Dutch or bilingual. Childminders (a kind of
babysitter, mainly women taking care of the children in their own home while the
parents are at work) take care of children of any age. Childminder’s are mostly
related to the parents, such as a neighbour or a grandparent etc. Care is usually
provided for the full working day.
At the child care centre a number of nursing tasks have to be done (sleeping, eating, giving
bottle etc.). There are always opportunities for free play, sometimes there is a focused
curriculum present and (group) activities are consciously planned. Especially in the play
groups, education is an important part of the everyday program, in order to prepare children
for primary school. All playgroups in Fryslân do use a didactic curriculum. The playgroup
programs contain a mixture of group activities (book reading, talking about it, get
instructions for and execute a creative task) and individual activities (having conversations,
telling stories, playing a game etc.). Day care and pre-school provisions belong to the
Ministry of Education Culture and Science. 28
In 2010, The Education Council of the Netherlands advised to the Ministry that all primary
schools in the Netherlands should offer education and care for all three year olds during five
mornings a week. Also more qualified staff should be trained and educated, in order to
prevent language deficits. The Dutch government emphasizes that, by 2011, all children
need to attend pre-school before primary school and obliges municipalities to establish preschool
provisions, in order to offer children “at risk” additional education. In the four big
cities of the Netherlands huge numbers of immigrants are settled. Often their children don’t
speak Dutch when they start attending primary school at 4 or 5 years. In 2011, the
experiment ‘the group 0’ has started; a class for children aged two and three years with a
Dutch language deficiency. 29 In Fryslân, this issue does not apply.
Child-staff ratios and maximum group size
In day care nurseries the size of the group depends on the area where the nursery is located,
usually a group consists of 12-14 children. The child - practitioner ratio is approximately 5:1.
Usually a student is added to the staff of the group.
In playgroup the group size consist of up to 15 children. They are usually lead by one paid
pre-school teacher and one volunteer or student.
28 OC&W, Ministry of Education Culture and Science urged the day care centres and the playgroup provisions to attune and to integrate
pre-school provisions in primary education, creating centres for children from birth to age 12. Deunk, M. (2009) Discourse Practices in
Preschool. Young Childrens’s Participation in Every Classroom Activities. Zutphen: Wörhrman Print Services.
29 The website of the National government ‘Rijksoverheid’ www.rijksoverheid.nl - toddlers and language delays-
http://www.rijksoverheid.nl/onderwerpen/leerachterstand/taalachterstand-bij-peuters [Accessed June 2011].
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