Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1386209
8 maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 23 JUNE 2021 NEWS JAMES DEBONO A proposal to extend free child- care services for under three- year-olds, irrespective of their parents' employment status, is part of holistic strategy from government to tackle early leav- ing from education (ELET) and training in Malta. Free childcare in Malta was a flagship social reform by the newly-elected Labour govern- ment in 2013, with the percent- age of under-3s in childcare shooting up from just 11% in 2014 to 31% in 2016 – the larg- est increase in such a cohort enrolled in formal childcare in the EU. Currently free childcare is available to all families where both parents work – but is not provided in cases where only one parent works. Parents are presently al- lowed to send their children to a childcare centre of their choice, and benefit from free childcare "equivalent to the hours worked by the parent with the lower workload, plus one hour extra for commut- ing", a measure that aims to create an incentive for mothers to return to work or to remain in formal employment. But in the last general elec- tion, a proposal by the Nation- alist Party to extend free child- care to all families, including those whose parents are not in employment was shot down by the Labour Party as one en- couraging welfare dependency. Instead Labour pledged to ex- tend childcare services in the evening for those who work at night or are attending full-time courses, a proposal now also being considered in a consul- tation document on national standards for early childhood education. Extending free childcare to all is now seen as a preventive measure in addressing early school-leaving, along with pro- viding alternative pathways for children and targeted measures to redress educational disad- vantage at an early age. The consultation proposes that access to free childcare is extended to all children within the target age range. "Eligibil- ity should not be restricted to children whose parents are in employment or education as this prevents access to many of those most in need and most likely to benefit from the free childcare services." Presently children whose par- ents are not socioeconomically active or in education are ex- cluded from the Free Childcare Scheme, and have reduced ac- cess hours to Klabb 3-16 and Skolasajf, "despite being most in need of additional support" The Free Childcare Scheme is considered as "an exam- ple of system-wide preventa- tive measures to combat early school leaving", with the docu- ment calling that it be extend- ed to all children in the target age group. Before the 2017 general elec- tion the Labour Party had warned that the Nationalist Party's proposal to extend free childcare to unemployed par- ents was unsustainable, with then education minister Evar- ist Bartolo describing it as un- just to working parents who pay taxes, and warning against reintroducing a mentality of reliance on social benefits. "The free childcare scheme introduced by this government was intended to encourage more people to find a job, so as to improve their family income and therefore their personal satisfaction," he said. "Our pol- icy was to make it worth it for people to find a job instead of relying on social benefits." But even back then, experts like Anna Borg, director of the University of Malta's Centre for Labour Studies argued that universal childcare for all chil- dren helped to mitigate social inequalities and break the cir- cle of poverty. Borg pointed out that free childcare can help address children's living conditions in at-risk households with out- comes felt at later stages by minimising the number of early school-leavers and facil- itating social mobility, noting that current eligibility criteria forfree childcare may be ex- cluding the most vulnerable children. Night-time childcare Another consultation docu- ment on National Standards for Early Childhood Education and Care Services, is also pro- posing the provision of child- care at night between 10pm and 5am. This proposal is being made in response to recent develop- ments in the Maltese econo- my in general and the role of women in the labour market. The night service provision between 10pm and 5 am aims to cater for families, where ei- ther both parents in the case of families with two parents or the parent in the case of single parent families, are in regulat- ed employment which overlaps with night service provision hours and who have no other suitable arrangements for the care of their children. jdebono@mediatoday.com.mt Free childcare for families with jobless parents Government set to extend free childcare to families with jobless parents, after shooting down PN proposal made in the 2017 general election