Currently there is no set minimum qualification for an early childhood centre director. A service can nominate a diploma trained or certificate III trained educator or a person without any teaching qualification to do the job. However, the early childhood teacher (ECT) must have a bachelor degree to perform the role. In doing their day to day job a ECT reports and being directed, supervised, mentored by the centre director who has minimum or no teaching qualification. This results in delays in implementing the strategies in the centre to achieve the quality practice.

This further puts the health, safety, education of children and practice of ECT at greater risk as the centre director with certificate III or diploma can also work as an assistant or educator on the floor when needed. If the assistant/ educator who is also a centre director does something wrong then nobody will take any action against him/her. Therefore, it is a clear conflict of interest. With these low qualifications they are not allowed to be registered by VIT, therefore, will lose nothing if they do something wrong or put others teaching practice in danger.

In Melbourne, as witnessed by parents, a centre director was keeping one child from the nursery room with her in the office. The child was drinking, eating and sleeping in the office lying in her lap. Since office room is not licensed to keep and care the nursery child, the centre director was violating the regulations and most importantly placing the health and safety of that child at high and considerable risk seeing that child could have fallen from her lap as she was sitting on the rotating chair on the hard floor of office while her one hand on computer keyboard and the other holding the phone. Nobody was commenting or asking her to stop this practice as this educator was also the centre director and she does not have any registration to loose even if the authorities are notified.

This kind of malpractice does not happen in health profession or in education sector at primary or secondary level. For example if a Doctor has to write a prescription then he does not have to agree to the receptionist of medical centre who looks after the enrollments of the patients. The principal of secondary college and primary school also have Bachelor degree at minimum.

Similarly, in pharmacy profession, only registered pharmacist can mentor, supervise other pharmacist, student pharmacist, pharmacy assistant but a pharmacy assistant with certificate level study can not mentor or supervise a registered pharmacist. Additionally, nursing assistant with certificate III or diploma cannot mentor, supervise and influence the practice of a registered nurse with Bachelor of Nursing degree. Even in the case of a driver instructor, they must have driver licence before they can instruct others to drive.

However, in early childhood field an ECT is supervised and mentored by someone who has no degree, professional registration to lose if something goes wrong. They can simply leave and get another job in any other field such as retail or takeaways, whereas an ECT who have spent years in studying, invested lot of money in gaining the degree qualification and are required to be registered by VIT will get no other job if their name is stuck off from the register. If the centre director is also registered ECT and have a degree then they will work efficiently, safely and can mentor another degree holder ECT or other educators who have low qualifications. Also due to their enhanced academic knowledge and fear of losing their registration, their teaching and management practice will not be compromised.

At this stage, after working as an early childhood assistant for some time anyone can become a centre director to direct, mentor supervise an ECT, who was actually supervising the assistant before. It is an unjust and far from being practical that ECT assistant who was being supervised by ECT becomes supervisor of ECT without gaining any degree qualification. 

Why an early childhood centre director should not be a registered early childhood teacher with bachelor degree to supervise and mentor other teachers?

Why anyone can walk in to this field and supervise and mentor the degree qualified teachers and their teaching practices?

Can we accept such malpractice in our primary schools, secondary schools or in hospitals?

Will early childhood teaching degrees become obsolete in Australia as now potential students select a diploma course to enable them to be counted as educators and get the preference over a degree qualified ECT to become a centre director to supervise and mentor a degree holder ECT?

 Let us fix this issue so that centre directors who are without any academic knowledge or themselves cannot work as an ECT should go back to university to get at least bachelor degree before they can mentor, supervise and influence the teaching practice of another bachelor qualified EC registered teachers. Your support is highly needed. Thank you.