Bid to promote childcare

Three childcare facilities should be opening in state schools by the start of the next scholastic year, Education Minister Louis Galea, said yesterday.

The three were in the process of being identified, based on logistics and convenience for users, said the minister.

The related ministries were discussing the best management systems.

In a world that was offering more and more opportunities, women were having to make choices that needed to be facilitated, Dr Galea said.

Over 90 per cent of children over two-and-a-half-years old attend kindergartens - a high percentage comparatively speaking. But there was clearly a need to address even younger children now that equal opportunities have increased.

The idea was that mothers could choose between family and work and that their choices would not be to the detriment of their children.

A new childcare centre was soon to open in Birkirkara in a partnership between the local council and the government. Other local councils were seeking to do the same, said Family and Social Solidarity Minister Dolores Cristina.

There were currently around 60 childcare facilities, most of them private. Following the setting of guidelines for these centres by the Department of Social Welfare Standards, they have a provisional registration which would be formalised once the standards are backed by legislation, Ms Cristina said.

Eventually, other innovative systems, such as home-based childcare would be introduced as was done overseas.

The ministers were speaking at the Westin Dragonara Kids Club during the Employment and Training Corporation's launch of a national campaign to promote the benefits of quality childcare services for children, their parents, employers and society in general. Partly financed by the EU Structural Funds Programme, the campaign stems from the fact that 71 per cent of respondents to a survey claim the public was not aware of the benefits of childcare. Forty-seven per cent did not know whether the centres were adequate.

Malta's female employment rate, which currently stands at 36 per cent and should be increased to 41 per cent in 2010, was another reason behind the campaign. But the main focus was the well-being of children, said Anna Borg, the senior executive at the ETC's Gender Equality Unit.

"The aim is to increase parent knowledge and confidence in quality childcare services, increase the demand for and use of quality childcare and stimulate female employment," said Ms Borg. Around 130 persons were currently undergoing intensive training in childcare at the ETC and would be completing their course by May. It was likely that they would take up positions in the existing private nurseries or those that are about to open, or be encouraged to form cooperatives and set up their own business, Ms Borg said.

According to pre-campaign research, the overwhelming view on childcare was that it should be representative of a child's home and more, said EMCS Ltd Economics Analyst Caroline Sciortino.

According to the findings, 53 per cent felt that mothers of children below three should not be in employment.

Seventy-two per cent of parents took care of their children, followed by their parents or in-laws at 16 per cent. General conclusions included the fact that when mothers went out to work, they considered it unfair that grandparents took care of their children. It was also agreed that childcare centres cost so much that mothers had to fork out half their pay, while shift workers had problems with their abnormal hours.

Mutual support between families and employers was necessary, the research showed. The national campaign runs until June and includes five TV spots as well as adverts on radio and magazines, and a national conference.

A freephone number, 8007 4903 has been set up to provide information.