In recent decades, we have witnessed a disturbing situation: several home childcare services have closed their doors, educational childcare services have announced service disruptions, and many educators have left or seriously considered to leave the profession. Declines in registrations for the DEC in Childhood Education Techniques have also been in freefall for years. Who could have seen coming this slaughter of a network which, for years, aroused envy throughout the world? Well… us! We, the partners, who have been working in the industry for a long time. We have seen the network of educational childcare services totally abandoned by successive governments. We also predicted the shortage of trained educators. We shouted loud and clear, but no one listened to us.
At the end of 2021, hope returned: the Minister for the Family, Mathieu Lacombe, launched the Big Worksite for Families and his network development plan. The salary of educators has been adjusted; this is a great step forward in the recognition of this magnificent profession! The government also announced the return to the single rate, a legislative reform and the opening of several new subsidized places. Scholarships have been established for the DEC in Childhood Education Techniques in order to increase the number of registrations.
The government now seems to understand the importance of the educational services network, both for Quebec families and for the economy of Quebec as a whole. For the first time in a very long time, we are seeing a real desire to complete the network as it was designed. A network where the child, his family and his craftsmen have priority.
Now all that remains is the “quality” file. The Premier already knows that he can count on us to develop the network and he must also know that we will be partners in all the steps that will improve the quality of our early childhood education services. While we understand that the labor shortage does not spare our sector, we continue to believe that the best guarantee of quality remains that of training.
No measure can be as structuring for the development of the full potential of our children as those encouraging the quality and qualification of educators. From the promotion of the DEC in Childhood Education Techniques to the valorization of this profession through the continuous improvement of working conditions, the government will find in us constructive and committed interlocutors.
With the Big construction site for families, the question of accessibility finally finds a solution. To quote the Prime Minister: [Nous avons] confidence that the Major Worksite for Families will enable us to resolve the issue of access to the network. The entire early childhood sector will finally be able to devote its energies to what constitutes its true mission: the quality of services offered to children and their families. We strongly hope that the government will take the time to listen to the opinion of experts in educational childcare services in order to achieve this quality objective! We saw the storm coming, we are weathering it now, and our expertise is essential to weather it.