Towards a Better Future

Chapter Two: Early Childhood Education
A DEVELOPING ECCE CONTEXT
While this call for a streamlined implementation process has still to be met, it is heartening to note
the implementation in recent years of a range of policies, which hold out much promise for early
childhood education.
Curriculum
In the area of curriculum, the CECDE produced Síolta in 2006, which broke new ground in this
field. In 2009, the NCCA published Aistear, drawing on a wide consultation process and best
international practice in curricular design for ECCE. This curricular work has been refined further
and incorporated in the NCCA’s Aistear / Síolta Practice Guide, published in 2015. This is a resource
of major value to practitioners in early childhood care and education, but is challenging for staff with
qualification levels of less than NFQ Level 7. The subtitle is indicative of the ‘toolkit’ aim of the
publication Curriculum Foundation and Pillars: Overviews, Activities, Self-evaluation Tools and Action
Planning Templates. It is envisaged as being used by a wide range of practitioners working in early
childhood settings. The introduction states:
The Practice Guide includes a range of resources to help practitioners to critically
reflect on their curriculum and identify what works well. Additionally, the resources
can help practitioners to identify priorities for development and to plan actions for
positive change. In this way, the Practice Guide can be used for on-going review,
development and improvement by individual practitioners, practitioners working
together and by practitioners supported by a mentor.
(NCCA, 2015a, p. 2).
The DES is also in the process of organising improvements on the primary school curriculum of
1999. It is concentrating on the early years at first and on language teaching in Irish and English and
in Mathematics teaching as a priority area. There is close liaison between the DES and the NCCA
with a view to incorporating best early childhood curricular practice in the new design. Hitherto,
there has been a dysfunction between the integrated approach of Aistear and the more subjectfocussed
infant school curriculum. The new Primary Language Curriculum will be available in two
versions, for Irish-medium schools and for English-medium schools. The final drafts of the volumes
are very attractive, well-illustrated and colourful, and contain much guidance and articulation of
learning outcomes for teachers. They include data on learning outcomes, progression criteria, support
materials and examples developed by teachers and children. However, the continuing existence of
very large numbers of pupils in many reception classes in infant schools is a serious impediment to
good practice.
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