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Looking for information on child care practitioners
in Nova Scotia?
For information on why Nova Scotia child care practitioners are an
invaluable resource, read through the Importance of
Child Care Practitioners section.
Find information on Nova Scotia child care practitioners' education and
work life in the Child Care Practitioners in Nova Scotia
section.
Discover what NSCCA feels are important issues and concerns
for child care in Nova Scotia in the NSCCA Issues and Concerns
section.
More information on the child care profession in Nova Scotia,
and links to other child care organizations can be found on the
Nova Scotia Child Care Connections site.
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Importance of Child Care Practitioners in Nova Scotia
Child care practitioners support children, parents, employers, and
local communities and contribute in great ways to making our society healthy
and prosperous.
- High quality child care, provided by quality child care practitioners,
has been shown to lower the rate of school drop-out and failure; reduce the
need to admit children into special education programs; lower juvenile
delinquency rates; and increase the detection and treatment of health problems.
- Behind working parents there are overworked, underpaid and
undervalued child care practitioners.
- Quality child care and quality child care practitioners
support and promote employment and facilitate parents in
continuing education and training.
- Child care practitioners also enhance children's
development and school readiness and rectify and prevent
effects of poverty and disadvantage for children at risk.
- Child care practitioners provide family support by
sustaining parents' competencies in raising children in a changing world.
- Approximately 70% or 41,503 Nova Scotian children, 0 - 6 years old,
have mothers in the paid workforce.
An estimated 9,500 of these children are in licensed full or part-time
child care programs. With 10,00 children born in Nova Scotia every year,
quality child care is becoming increasingly crucial in our province.
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Child Care Practitioners in Nova Scotia
- Approximately 80% of all child care practitioners in Nova Scotia are
trained in early childhood care and education.
Child care practitioners are educated experts in their field.
- The approximate 1510 child care teachers in Nova Scotia are paid an average of
$7.87 per hour, just a little over minimum wage.
- There are eight early childhood training programs in Nova Scotia,
and as of March 2002, 492 students were enrolled in these programs.
These, nearly 500 students, will become the trained professionals caring for Nova Scotian children.
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NSCCA Issues and Concerns
Child care practitioners are the most important ingredient in
high quality child care. They love, care for and educate children during
the most important developmental stage of their lives. Yet, the average
teacher in Nova Scotia is paid only slightly more than minimum wage.
- To ensure quality child care, Nova Scotia must provide support to
child care practitioners, through training, program standards, and recognition.
- For a decade, the government and those involved in child care have cited
low wages as roadblock to maintaining a well-qualified, stable work force,
which has a direct impact on the quality of care in Nova Scotia.
(Miller & Ferguson, 2000Attracting and Keeping Qualified Staff in Child Care CCCNS
- Child care is a highly important job, practiced by individuals
who are trained professionals in the field. Child care practitioners must be
recognized as professionals and the importance of their work must be acknowledged
in order to make child care in Nova Scotia the best it can be.
- To increase the quality of child care in Nova Scotia, we need to
improve standards and guidelines for our profession.
- It is the shared responsibility of families, communities and
society to care for the future generation. Quality child care is everyone's business.
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