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Parents are 'dumping' children on schools as Labour pushes for longer working hours, say teachers
by Laura Clark
Ministers were accused today of encouraging a "back to work culture" where parents foist responsibility for bringing up their children onto nurseries and schools.
A head teachers' leader warned that Government plans for a massive expansion of childcare and a 50-hour week in schools risked undermining family life and damaging young children.
Mick Brookes, of the National Association of Head Teachers, said too many parents were "abdicating" responsibility for childrearing and discipline by "dumping" them on nurseries and schools.
But he was immediately slapped down by Children's Minister Beverley Hughes who branded his remarks "unhelpful". She claimed "there won't be many" children left in school for 10 hours a day five days a week.
But Mr Brookes interjected to claim that a minority of parents are unable to say no to their children and have "lost control" of them, prompting them to leave the task to schools. "Some parents do abdicate responsibility for their children," he said.
"They dump their children early in the morning at school and are late picking them up at the end of the day." He said a better balance needed to be struck between allowing parents choice over childcare and encouraging them to accept their parental responsibility.
"It's getting that balance right. I am not sure we have got it," he said. "If you choose to have children, of course there's a responsibility in the early years to look after them."
Speaking at NAHT's annual conference in Liverpool, he insisted: "The Government must stop displacing blame and loading all the ills of society onto the backs of schools."
He said he backed NAHT member schools that had already introduced dawn-to-dusk schooling but added: "We also hold the view that the vast majority of parents want to see their children after school.
"We echo the shock expressed from some of the Eastern European parents that rather than promoting the importance of quality childcare at home, our country advocates a back to work culture that may well prove to be counter-productive."
Ministers have said they want all schools to be "extended schools" by 2010, offering childcare and activities from 8am until 6pm to help parents fit work around schooling.
Amid opposition, they now accept not all schools have to offer 10-hour days themselves and is allowing some simply to direct parents to facilities in other schools or the local community instead.
The Government has also presided over a big increase in places in full and part-time daycare, with more than 800,000 places now available.
Mr Brookes' remarks reinforce a call on Saturday from NAHT president Clarissa Williams for parents to be given cash incentives to stay at home and spend "quality time" with their children instead of feeling pressured by the Government to go back to work.
She said the Government had made it the "norm" to place toddlers in school-type settings instead of encouraging parents to talk, play and read with their children.
Meanwhile New London Mayor Boris Johnson said on accepting the office that children growing up without boundaries was the biggest underlying problem facing the capital.
Mr Brookes, NAHT general secretary, said: "There are parents who lack the ability to say no. "They need help and support - abdication of their responsibility is not right. "They need to be shown how to turn that around at a young age - by the time they are in their teens it is impossible."
He said there was too great a focus on providing care for children in their early years, handing parents with an "excuse" to shirk their responsibilities. But Mrs Hughes, who had earlier addressed the conference, said: "I think that's probably a fairly unhelpful comment - the very fact that you said it.
"What most parents need is the choice. "The research tells us that certainly for toddlers and beyond, high quality early years provision makes a measurable and long-term positive difference to their ability to shine at school, to their social development.
"The challenge for me in extending these opportunities for early years provision is to make sure it is high quality."
— Laura Clark
2008-05-05
Daily Mail
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