Following discussions with members throughout the country, the ACP is organising a rally entitled ‘Quality costs, invest now!’ from 1-3pm on Tuesday 17th February 2015, in Kildare Street, outside Dáil Éireann.
The purpose of this rally is to highlight the importance of early childhood education and care and the vital role played by childhood professionals in supporting the children and families in the foundation stage of development. To date this foundation stage has mainly been seen within the domain of the family rather than the societal domain and this thinking needs to change. The foundation stage must be recognised within the life long continuum of care and education framework.
One of the key messages of this rally is that we, employers and employees, are subsidising, by virtue of our low wages, (and the voluntary time required for meeting with parents, admin, maintenance etc) the early childhood education and care system in Ireland and that we can no longer afford to do this so we are demanding that the government steps in and recognises and accepts their responsibility to provide sufficient funding to adequately resource all areas of high quality provision.
You can read full information on the rally on the organisers website here: Association Of Childhood Professionals Rally
