‘Like putting your child in a safety deposit box’: Regulators’ childcare fears revealed

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Migration agents are funnelling students into childcare courses despite a lack of interest or qualifications for such a career, education regulators have warned.

Students who are “not genuine” and who have not undertaken mandatory checks for placement in a daycare centres are also signing up.

The regulator has sounded the alarm on childcare placement students

University regulator TEQSA and its vocational education counterpart ASQA have sounded the alarm on new risks to children in childcare and preschools posed by students on placement as part of their studies.

“The sector alert highlights risk-based concerns about whether some providers’ enrolment, delivery and assessment practices are genuinely participating in their studies,” TEQSA spokesperson said.

“Rapid changes in enrolment patterns, student preparedness for placement and weaknesses in assessment integrity can place pressure on education quality and child safety.”

The consequences for children in their care are significant, said NSW Greens MLC Abigail Boyd, who chaired an inquiry into NSW childcare centres. “It’s rotten,” she said.

“It’s driving the sector towards one where, if you’re lucky, it’s like putting your child into a safety deposit box for the day.”

The parliamentary inquiry into childcare chaired by Greens MLC Abigail Boyd is due to report back in March.

Poor teaching practices also undermine the known benefits of quality early childhood education – improved cognitive outcomes, school readiness and test scores – said Boyd.

The regulators’ wide-ranging concerns included migration agents shoehorning ill-suited students into childcare programs and students not being “genuine and prepared” for courses.

They also flagged issues with placements in daycare settings including students not having undertaken training or mandatory checks such as working with children and language proficiency. Students also lack access to high-quality work placement opportunities, the alert said.

“This is now an industry built around profit,” Boyd said. “Now we have short courses we’re churning people through.”

Early childhood educators study either vocational qualifications or a four-year university degree, although private vocational colleges have been increasingly offering fast-tracked qualifications.

“These short courses mean participants can be less interested in early childhood teaching and they’re less appropriate for the job,” she said.

“There exists an opportunity for exploitation of children – [bad actors think] ‘I can become a teacher in a year, what a great opportunity’,” said Boyd.

TEQSA said its alert was intended to stop poor practices becoming entrenched and prompt focus on governance, assessment and oversight so qualifications were credible and graduates could go on to a successful career in early childhood education.

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