The number of children enrolled in at-home care has doubled to 32,000.
Au pairs, grandparents and stay-at-home mums are all among those being paid from the $1.5 billion early childhood education (ECE) budget - which the architect of the 20-hours-free policy.
Former Labour Party education minister Trevor Mallard says this was never the intention.
The increased number of children being taught at home has prompted concerns that children are not being taught by trained and qualified professionals.
Trevor has been reported in the media as saying that he doesn't believe it is the role of the state to be paying for people who don't have training.
SunLive asked members of the public what they through about children being taught at home and what the benefits of keeping children at home were, and what were the benefits of sending them to daycare.
8 comments
1950's primary
Posted on 11-10-2015 07:59 | By SonnyJim
I was raised through the 50's and was bored out of my skull with the 'learn-by-rote' system and my hungry young mind could not grasp the reason for this torture. The cure in the teachers head, coping with the class size of 45-49, was the strap. Hitting high-school was whole new tin-of-beans and my brain just soaked up information - Free at Last. Primary education, as it was, really scarred my mind and I have almost no memory of those years at primary school. I thoroughly understand the urge by some to home-school.
Overit
Posted on 11-10-2015 09:38 | By overit
No I am against it, the kids over my back fence are home schooled and I don't think their social skills are up to much.There's a lot of playing as the mother thinks they should play until they are 7.She is not a teacher. I really wonder if those kids are getting set up to fail later in life and be dependent on Social Welfare like others in the household.
Trevor Mallard says this was never the intention.
Posted on 11-10-2015 10:08 | By How about this view!
Funny how some legislation has unintended consequences and some just doesn't work. We would appear to have an unwritten policy throughout the University system (A teaching and training establishment that SHOULD be the highest education level attainable) to get "bums on seats"! It may be a bit flippant, but some could see just that with our teacher training through Universities today. Rather than only accepting "The best of the best" into teacher training we are accepting any old "bum" and turning them out as a "Teacher". Compounding ignorance!!!!
Dyslexia
Posted on 11-10-2015 14:42 | By valerie green
I am wondering how much school teachers today are taught about children with dyslexia/learning disabilities and are these children able to get a proper assessment within the school system if their parents are unable to pay the cost of a private professional.
often religious fundies?
Posted on 11-10-2015 18:16 | By Annalist
Seems to me a lot of homeschooling is taken on by some religious fundamentalists or similar. Then they can teach crazy stuff like the age of the earth being only 6000 years, people riding dinosaurs and other oddities. Personally I think a state education is better and even though it has its faults results in socialisation and better knowledge.
Home Schooling
Posted on 11-10-2015 22:39 | By rajen
Home schooling can be an excellent source of education for the right kids and disciplined parents. I home-schooled my two kids for a couple of years and they both have very good jobs and are productive members of Society. However, there were other families that were home-schooling at the same time as us and they were just plain lazy and it was an excuse for the mum to stay in bed and not to have to get kids off to school. There are good arguments for both sides of the debate but I do feel strongly that if parents opt for this type of education, they need to have some kind of supervision from trained professionals.
Reply to Overit
Posted on 13-10-2015 08:51 | By Bay Citizen
Believing that children should play until they are 7 is a valid stance that is backed up by schooling practice in countries such as Sweden.
Training
Posted on 13-10-2015 08:56 | By Bay Citizen
The issue of training is a red-herring for primary school teachers. Yes, it should be the norm, BUT it is also true that there are some really dim people out there who qualify as ECE trained: it's not guarantee of quality. On the other hand, insisting on such training puts off intelligent, experienced people who want to become teachers later in life.
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