Australia has strict rating requirements for childcare. (Daily Telegraph Photo)
More than a fifth of the new state's childcare centers do not meet the national standard, with more than 1000, according to the latest assessment data.
The Daily Telegraph reported that data from the Australian Bureau of Child Education and Care Quality (AECQA) showed that 1111 childcare and pre-school care services in the new state did not meet national quality standards (NQS).
The data as of October 16 show that 1106 childcare services in the new state are "working towards NQS"(NQS), and five of the worst rated services require" significant improvement "(significant improvement).
The five identified as requiring "significant improvements" were:
- The Kids Activity Centre Ltd（Mount Druitt）
- Leeton Early Learning Centre （Leeton）
- Before and After School Care at St Aidan’s（Maroubra）
- Up and Ready Family Day Care （Wollongong）
- St Mark’s Child Care Centre Oakhurst Outside School Hours Care
The assessments they received between December 2019 and August 2020 were rated as requiring significant improvement.
In addition, the new state education department also said that this year ,16 childcare services have been closed because they can not meet the requirements.
Childcare centre services need to be assessed in seven areas. (Daily Telegraph Photo)
Childcare centres and pre- and after-school services are assessed in seven areas —— education, health and safety, physical environment, staffing, relationship 、 with children, cooperation with families and communities, management and leadership.
This year ,15 childcare centres and services in the new state met the highest standards of excellence (excellent), while 1,353 exceeded the standards (exceeding the standards) and 2724 met the standards (meeting requirements).
The NQS rating system is only one of many government departments and agencies in Australia that inspect childcare services.
The Department of Education of Xinzhou speaker stressed that NQS "is not a passing system" and that "the quality of services needs to be widely measured and the overall quality of services is assessed on performance in seven quality areas. "
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"Over the past five years, the proportion of services that meet or exceed national standards has increased from 58.4 per cent to 78.1 per cent, which is a significant increase. "
speaker also noted that the New State Department of Education worked closely with all childcare services to promote quality improvement and provide resources and training for educators and caregivers.
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One of the projects included the provision of face-to-face training and support, network and telephone support, and the provision of resources to support quality improvement.
The speaker also stressed that the New State Department of Education will pay close attention to the worst-rated childcare centres and services, which will be suspended or even terminated once the authorities determines that they pose a significant risk to children.
"Up to now this year, the Department of Education has abolished four childcare centres and 12 home-based childcare services ," he said. "
Of these childcare services that were authorities shut down ," one did not have an open rating, one was `in need of significant improvement', and the remaining' was committed to NQS'".
