London - Preschools are breeding a generation of toddlers with no manners, the education minister has warned.
Elizabeth Truss condemned “chaotic” preschools that allow children to do what they want all day long, leaving them unable to sit still and listen by the time they get to primary school.
In an interview, she said many nurseries were filled with toddlers “running around with no sense of purpose”.
She called for a traditional approach akin to that found in France, where children typically start working with a graduate-level teacher from the age of two and are expected to say “hello” when an adult enters the room.
The minister’s criticism comes as the British government prepares to offer tax breaks to help working parents with the cost of childcare. From 2015, working couples will qualify for tax breaks worth as much as £1 200 (about R15 600) a year per child.
Some Tory MPs have claimed the scheme discriminates against stay-at-home mothers, but ministers say there is evidence that up to a million women want to work but are put off by nursery or childminder costs.
Truss’s intervention suggests the Government believes there is much work to be done to improve the quality of care in nurseries before the tax breaks come into effect.
She said education watchdog Ofsted will be expected to mark down preschool providers who do not take on better-qualified staff and offer children more structure.
“This isn’t about two-year-olds doing academic work – it’s structured play which teaches children to be polite and considerate through activities which the teacher is clearly leading,” she said.
“At the moment fewer than one-third of nurseries employ graduate-level teachers and have structured, teacher-led sessions. We know that’s very beneficial.
“What you notice in French nurseries is just how calm they are. All of their classes are structured and led by teachers. It’s a requirement. They learn to socialise with each other, pay attention to the teacher and develop good manners, which is not the case in too many nurseries in Britain.”
She said of the UK system: “Free-flow play is not compulsory, but there is a belief across lots of nurseries that it is. I have seen too many chaotic settings, where children are running around. There’s no sense of purpose.
“In these settings where there aren’t sufficiently qualified staff, and children are running around, we are not getting positive outcomes.
“We want children to learn to listen to a teacher, learn to respect an instruction, so that they are ready for school.”
The married mother of two, who is increasingly tipped for high office, said it was clear that far too many existing nurseries are “not good enough” – and stressed the importance of good preparation for primary school.
“Children get into the habit of waiting their turn, of saying hello to the teacher when they come into the room,” she said.
The minister highlighted the Government’s changes to rules on child-to-adult ratios, to encourage nurseries to employ better-paid graduates.
Teachers can already look after up to 13 children aged three and four years, compared with just eight for less well-qualified staff.
Her intervention will delight parents and educators who believe a more traditional approach is necessary in vital preschool years.
However, it risks angering trade union leaders and those who insist it is best to ‘let children be children’ before they reach primary school.
From September, Ofsted will only consider ratings of “good” or “outstanding” to be acceptable for nurseries and pre-schools; the “satisfactory” rating will be scrapped and replaced with “requires improvement”.
Ofsted head Sir Michael Wilshaw recently decried the “absolute nonsense” that more exams are needed to work with animals than young children. - Daily Mail