FROEBEL Australia celebrates our national Early Childhood Educators’ Day on 7 September 2022 as a proud and ambitious not-for-profit organisation employing more than 160 early childhood professionals.

This year, more than any year, we invite colleagues, families – people across Australia - to join us in not only thanking our early childhood educators and teachers for their professionalism, resilience and service over the 2.5 years of the pandemic, but to unite in asking for positive, tangible change for the early childhood sector; change that will improve the work conditions and ultimately the outcomes for families, children and society.

We are asking the Australian Government and the State/Territory Governments to join FROEBEL in advocating for the importance and professionalism of the early childhood sector through a nationwide awareness campaign. 

The early childhood sector is a cornerstone of our education system, of our social cohesion and of our economy.

For years, “embracing excellence” has been one of our organisation’s core values. Advocating for professionalism in the early childhood sector are integral elements of what we believe in. The sector’s professionalism is often undervalued or even discredited in the public discourse. Often, the public debate about “childcare” does not reflect what it takes to teach and work with young children in the early years, and still has a notion of “child minding” or “babysitting” rather than early education and care in the most critical years of a child’s learning and development. Words matter. 

Working with children in their early years at a high standard requires diverse skills, knowledge and experience. The entry level qualification to be able to work in the sector is a Certificate III in Early Childhood Education and Care. More than half of an early childhood service's team of educators must hold a Diploma of Early Childhood Education and Care which usually takes two years of active studies to acquire. Early Childhood Teachers hold a university degree (Graduate Diploma, Bachelor or Master) and work on maintaining their registration with their State’s professional board just like school teachers. The engagement in continuous professional development and current scientific research is an ongoing job requirement for everyone working with children in the early years. 

We want Australians to know about this. We need to better educate our society about the work we do; about what it takes to be an early years professional:

• about the why and how we develop and implement a curriculum that is tailored to each child’s individual needs so that we can best prepare them for the next stage of their lives;
• about how we encourage children to explore and develop their agency, identity and active role in a democratic society as curious, capable, caring and contributing global citizens;
• about how we build trusting relationships with children and their families to ensure they feel safe and secure in our care;
• about how we support their emotional, social, cognitive and physical development;
• about how we teach children empathy, responsibility and kindness;
• about how we use our expertise to help and advise parents on questions and concerns they have about their children and their development;
• about how we ensure children’s health and safety in our care which may include administering first aid, implementing individual medical action plans and making educated decisions about their safety and wellbeing;
• about the extent and detail of work that goes into adhering to a very complex regulatory framework, documenting compliance and implementing appropriate risk management on a daily basis;
• about the tremendous responsibility we carry every day, being entrusted with the precious lives of babies and young children under the age of 5 who all learn to walk, to climb, to balance, to interact with other children and adults, to share, to negotiate, to regulate emotions, to be away from their family in a different social setting.

Our work deserves respect! If more people know about the complexities of our roles and truly see it in our daily work, more respect will be earned. 

We are asking the Australian Government and the State/Territory Governments to join FROEBEL in advocating for and effecting improved pay and work conditions for early professionals. 

FROEBEL is proud of its commitment to fair remuneration for early childhood educators and teachers. Our pay rates for permanently employed early childhood educators as well as early childhood teachers who commence as graduate teachers are between 7.5% and 12.5% above modern award rates (plus allowances modern awards do not cater for) – even after the most recent review of the award rates by the Fair Work Ombudsman which delivered rate increases of up to 13% for early childhood teachers in January 2022, and another 4.6% for both early childhood educators and teachers in July 2022. We are determined to continue improving pay and work conditions where possible. 

Working in early childhood is a highly responsible, physically, mentally and intellectually demanding job for anyone who takes the role seriously. Often, educators and teachers are not remunerated appropriately for their work. Working in early childhood is also an extremely rewarding job. However, respect and appreciation for the profession do need to be appropriately reflected in modern award pay rates.

It is a complex matter, also because higher wages correlate with higher fees for families who already are under significant financial pressure due to the enormous cost of “childcare”. We ask for the Government to improve their investment in early education in a way that pay and work conditions can be improved without hurting families’ budgets even more and without forcing approved providers to increase fees. 

We are asking the Australian Government and the State/Territory Governments to promote careers in early childhood and to remove barriers to accessing jobs in the early childhood sector.

We want way more people to seriously consider a career in early childhood, rather than leave our sector; not only because of the current staff shortage but mainly because it is such a diverse profession where one can make a huge difference in children’s lives and in their education - and through that help shaping our future. We want better workforce planning on a federal level, with

• fewer barriers to obtaining qualifications (e.g. by providing free/more affordable TAFE and tertiary education opportunities for new and existing early childhood educators/teachers), and
• fewer barriers to employment (e.g. by opening up more, easier immigration pathways for suitably qualified educators from overseas and introducing 24 months work visa for adequately trained staff without too much red tape).    

We are asking the Australian Government and the State/Territory Governments to undertake an outcome focussed review of the National Quality Framework.

We ask our Governments to re-evaluate which elements of our current system and the National Quality Framework really do support better learning and development outcomes for children – and which do not. Is all the documentation work we currently do essential? Is the current Assessment & Rating system best equipped to deliver a fair, equitable and appropriately comparable picture of the quality of early childhood services across Australia? Is it really helpful that government funded kindergartens/preschools and kindergarten/preschool programs which are integrated in long day care settings compete against each other in the way they currently do? 

Early Childhood Educators’ Day as opportunity to promote positive change

We are people who love and believe in what we do but who also want to see the sector evolve and improve to deliver better outcomes for children and better work conditions for early childhood professionals. 

Please sign and share our petition for positive, tangible change. Please add your own voice to our petition by sharing your comments and thoughts about what can be improved in Australia’s early childhood education system to achieve better work conditions for educators and better outcomes for families and children.