The National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) expressed its disquiet last week that many two-year-olds across the province were now in settings that were developmentally inappropriate for them. Fern Turner, NAHT regional officer for Northern Ireland, said, 'Some of these children are in mixed classes of two- and three-year-olds, but there are other classes made up of mainly two-year-olds with just one qualified teacher and a classroom assistant.
'Nursery schools aren't equipped to deal with two-year-olds. The nursery curriculum is structured and designed for three-year-olds and isn't appropriate for younger children at an earlier stage of development.
'The provision has to suit the stage of a child's development. What children of this age need is different than what is available in nursery schools at present.'
The pressure on primary schools and nursery schools to take younger children is a result of Northern Ireland's Pre-school Education Expansion Programme, which has created new funded places in the statutory, voluntary and private sectors through Pre-school Education Advisory Groups (PEAGs) that represent all the sectors. But the nursery schools have to have all their places filled to be viable.
Margaret Mehaffey, principal of McArthur Nursery School in east Belfast, which has a number of two-year-olds on its roll, said, 'The problem is there are too many places and not enough children to fill them. The programme expanded where there was no need to expand, due to changes in population trends and too many places being created in wrong areas where the population has not drifted to.'
Jane Kennedy, the minister responsible for education in Northern Ireland, said that each of the five Education and Library Boards receives a capital allocation for its PEAG building programme of nursery schools and units, as well as 'a single recurrent allocation' from which the PEAGs must meet their running costs 'for a period between their opening and their being absorbed into the main schools budget, and the costs of funding places in the voluntary and private sector'. However, the Department of Education did 'not allocate funding to PEAGs using a places per ward criterion, but rather on the basis of annual plans for their areas produced by the PEAGs and approved by the Department'.
Maureen Blacklaw, principal of Corran Integrated Primary School in Larne, Co Antrim, said, 'We have had to take some two-year-old placements because nursery schools would lose PEAG money if they don't fill the places, because they have still got to pay teachers and staff.
'We currently have six two-year-olds in a class of 26 children. We also have a waiting list of around 50 children for next year, but because of the six children only 20 places will be available. Therefore we can't meet the need locally.'
A Department of Education spokesman said, 'Legislation in Northern Ireland allows two-year-olds to be admitted to nursery schools and nursery units in primary schools, but in practice they may be admitted only if there are places not filled by older children. The Department is aware that very young children may gain little from nursery education, and the question of raising the lower admission age will be considered in its forthcoming review of pre-school education.'
Mrs Turner has called for the Government to look again at the funding of the provision on health and safety grounds. She said, 'Two-year-olds are not ready to socialise. They are still me-centred and not ready to work with other children. These young children need significant adult help.
'This is not statutory education. Therefore, when a school asks parents to remove their two-year-old children because they are kicking, punching and biting teachers and other children, it can create the myth of so-called "horrendous children" being expelled from nursery schools. This can affect them and their reputation through the rest of their school education.'
