Children need children
Child care is not a parking place but a once in a lifetime chance to acquire social and learning skills was the message from speaker after the speaker at the SPD/PES Women Seminar on child care in Berlin on 12 June.
“Children need children” was how German MP Caren Marks explained the need for more child care in societies with fewer large families, with many single-child households, where too much TV and too many computers games can be an obstacle to a child’s development. Early childhood is very important and whatever is missed in those years cannot be made up later, claimed Marks.
Children learned soft skills better in groups with other children added Verena Ehrler from the Swiss Socialist Party. The value of pre-school child care – care and education – for a child’s development was the overwhelming conclusion for the Seminar bringing together some 50 social democrats and socialists from all over Europe.
The Dutch Labour Party – PvdA – was now shaping a new Government policy for promoting early education not just for when parents work said Sev Vinders, but as an advantage in its own right. In the city of Lohja in Finland no one could doubt the quality of child care now, as they might have done years ago said Mayor Elina Lehto.
The benefits of early, pre-school education are many, including
- Language acquisition, especially but not only important for families with a migrant background
- Learning skills to make successful progress at school
- Integration – learning to live and play together – increasingly important for children (and parents) in a multi-cultural society.
Much emphasis was placed on the importance of quality in child care, and especially on the training and qualifications of child care staff. Lessons could be learned in this respect from both Finland and France said speakers from Germany. Similarly, efforts are being made in the Netherlands and Austria to upgrade the educational skills of child care workers.
Turning to the political debate, some conservatives had a problem with child care freeing women to enter paid employment said Elke Ferner, Chair of SPD Women. Instead social democratic women in Germany have been calling since 1977 for child care from birth said Karin Junker, and social democrats had a much stronger commitment to public child care facilities. Christian Democrats supported the right of mothers to choose to stay at home with their children, but many parents have no choice in the matter due to the lack of child care places added Caren Marks.
With the SPD having persuaded their coalition partners to accept a legal right to child care an important milestone was within reach in Germany, but everyone at the seminar agreed with Anna Karamanou from Greek socialist party PASOK when she said that Europe needed a revolution in child care.
The next step was outlined by Zita Gurmai, President of PES Women – the drawing up of concrete proposals for the EU to encourage its member states to achieve the child care provision agreed five years ago at the Barcelona Summit.
FOR MORE INFORMATION: Julian Scola, Press Officer
Party of European Socialists, Rue du Trône, 98, B-1050 Brussels
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