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10th November 2005 Baby education is 'absolute madness' Plans to introduce a new national curriculum for babies and toddlers are "absolute madness" parents' groups have warned. Under the Childcare Bill, childminders would teach the curriculum to children 'from birth' until they start school. All three-year-olds in childcare in England would learn rudimentary maths, language and literacy. But the national Confederation of Parent teach Associations described the proposal as 'bizarre'. "We are now in danger of taking away children's childhood when they leave the maternity ward" she said. "From the minute you are born and your parents go back to work, as the Government has encouraged them to do, they are going to be ruled by the Department of Education. "It is absolute madness." The Professional Association of Nursery Nurses said the new curriculum, which aims to integrate childcare and education, must not be too rigid. Tracie Pritchard, from PANN, said " We hope that this will be age-appropriate and flexible as young children develop at different rates. The Government drew up the new curriculum for toddlers, arguing that research showed earlier education helped children develop faster socially and intellectually. Publishing the Bill in Westminster, Children's Minister Beverley Hughes said "We want to establish a coherent framework that defines progression for young children from 0 to five. "We are not talking about sitting very young children in chairs and making them learn numbers and letter where that is inappropriate." The Bill tells childcare providers to give a mixture of "integrated care and education from birth". The minister said the curriculum, to be known as the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) would be "completely age specific." The Bill also gives local authorities a new duty to make sure all working parents have access to childcare facilities. Where to next?
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