Full-fledged teachers

Those of us who work with children in the early stages of education celebrate and applaud the fact that the latest curriculum reform of 2023 affirmed from the outset that "the early childhood education curriculum integrates the first and second cycles into a single educational stage with its own identity." This is a demand that has been made by the educational reform movements, with the journal CHILDHOOD As a keynote speaker, he has championed and defended his position for decades. The problem is that these good intentions, when they come down to earth, end up being just wishful thinking, because the reality is that we have a completely fragmented political landscape.

Depend on different administrations

The first and second cycles of this stage depend primarily on different administrations. Local councils manage preschools, while the second cycle groups have long been integrated into primary schools, which are managed by the regional government. This arrangement has left the care of the youngest children in the hands of local authorities, who manage this task with varying degrees of responsibility, resulting in significant differences in the working conditions of the 0-3 year-old teams. The 3-6 year-old teams, on the other hand, have working conditions that are similar to those of their primary school counterparts.

This translates into a clear algorithm: the younger the children you educate, the more precarious the working conditions will be.

Private and semi-private schools, aware of this fragmentation, address it by offering education from an early age, guaranteeing families continuity that public schools currently do not provide. It's easy to see that there are many vested interests in maintaining this situation.

The experimental plan promoted by the Secretariat of the Rural School, initiated in 2016, through which the incorporation of first cycle children into the rural school is made possible, represents an experience whose quality should be evaluated, in order to assess its continuity and perhaps also its extension beyond the rural area.

Double educator figure

This is also a reality in our country, and one that is far from widespread in the rest of Europe, which is also important to mention. Why are two different training programs required—one for teachers and one for early childhood education technicians (TEI)? What arguments justify separating the caregiving and pedagogical aspects (which the work certainly involves) by creating two separate professional roles? The pedagogue Loris Malaguzzi said that it couldn't be that in school there was one adult taking care of the child's brain, and another, on the other hand, taking care of their bottom! Excuse my language, fellow educators, because I know the value of your work, which is why it outrages me that you are not considered fully-fledged teachers.

I believe that in this matter, on the one hand, there's a deeply ingrained social and political idea that the 0-3 year-old program should focus on custody (hence the term "nursery," so difficult to shake) and care, and, on the other hand, the economic factor also plays a role. The less training one has, the lower the salary will be. Oh, and this is because the institutes that train those who become Early Childhood Education Technicians (TEIs) do extraordinary and highly specialized work, which the university would also find interesting to observe with curiosity, as it could learn things to contribute to teacher training.

One school, two curricula

Children aged 3 to 6, although not part of compulsory education, are organizationally integrated into public schools. This often leads us, the teaching teams working there, to have to remind, and in some cases even defend, the specific characteristics of this stage and the criteria defined in official documents. Schools that cater to children aged 3 to 12 must define a coherent educational project that respects the identities of both stages (early childhood and primary), and sometimes the emphasis on primary education ends up overshadowing the second cycle of preschool, both organizationally and pedagogically.

Despite everything, those working in early childhood and primary education remain the most qualified and mobilized group to demand quality education for the youngest children. However, we must not lose sight of our goal, which is the true unity of this educational stage, and we strive to achieve it.