Policy Developments 1990-2004 - Centre for Early Childhood ...

Section 4Policy Developments 1990-2004intervention and to indicate howeffectiveness and efficiency may beenhanced. (DES, 1999a:124)The White Paper favours a singleevaluation system, or single evaluator, toassess all these components. Moreover, therole of the evaluator would also incorporatea supportive element:…in addition to their inspection role,inspectors will be available tosupport providers and suggest waysof remedying deficiencies. (DES,1999a:123)The establishment of an Early ChildhoodEducation Agency (ECEA) was proposed bythe White Paper to fulfil the manyobjectives and recommendations citedtherein. As outlined in the Introduction, theCECDE was established in October 2002 asa seed agency to the ECEA. The corefunction of the CECDE is the developmentof an NFQ. This is stated in our Programmeof Work (CECDE, 2001) and the process forits realisation outlined in our ResearchStrategy (CECDE, 2003a).The CECDE has also completed somebaseline research (see Section 6 for moredetail) in the form of An Audit of Researchon Early Childhood Care and Education inIreland 1990-2003 (CECDE, 2003b),where a chapter is dedicated to the themeof quality in Irish research. In addition, OnTarget? An Audit of Provision of ServicesTargeting Disadvantage and SpecialNeeds among Children from Birth to SixYears in Ireland (CECDE, 2004a) has alsobeen compiled. The outcomes of a nationalconsultation process on the issue of quality,Talking About Quality, have beenpublished (CECDE, 2004b). Perspectiveson Childhood (CECDE, Forthcoming A) isin the process of being developed. MakingConnections, A Review of InternationalPolicy, Practice and Research Relating toQuality in Early Childhood Care andEducation (CECDE, Forthcoming B) will bepublished in late 2004.Pupils within the infant classes followed theNew Curriculum of 1971 until theintroduction of the Primary SchoolCurriculum (DES, 1999b). This built onmany of the child-centred and holisticphilosophies underpinning the previouscurriculum. The curriculum is presented ina suite of 23 curricular books outlining theaims, objectives, content, concepts andassessment of each curricular area. In theIntroduction to the Primary SchoolCurriculum 1999, “Quality inEducation” is listed as the first key issue inprimary education. The curriculumadvances the rights of children in thisregard:Each child is entitled to the bestpossible quality of education and itis the responsibility of the state toprovide for this through theeducation system. Curriculum is animportant determinant of quality ineducation, and the standards oflearning children achieve throughtheir engagement with it will be ameasure of its effectiveness. (DES,1999b:26 Introduction).Early childhood education is also a keyissue in primary education considering thenumber of four and five - year olds withinthe education system (DES, 1999b:30Introduction). Inherent in the curriculumfor the infant classes is the flexibility toaccommodate the multiple levels ofattainment of children in all aspects ofdevelopment on entry to schooling. Play isa core feature of the curriculum whilelanguage is central to the programmefollowed in the infant classes. In addition,the role of assessment is stressed as anintegral element of the curriculum “…toensure quality in education.” (DES,1999b:17 Introduction)There are six main areas within thecurriculum:1. Language2. Mathematics26