Ensuring quality public education for children from birth until the age of three is one of the most important issues facing Israel today.
As a first step toward this goal, we’re pushing for government investment in the training of staff members in daycare centers and preschools.
Today, most early childhood education workers in Israel, including those working in government-subsidized settings, do not receive the necessary training to equip them for their challenging roles. The result is felt in the poor quality care that many children receive, as well as in the high turnover among the staff.
The care that a child receives in their first three years profoundly shapes the course of their life.
By training the staff in early learning environments and improving the quality of the care they provide, we can help give children what they need to learn, develop, and thrive.
This sets them up for achieving their full potential in school and life. It also helps reduce the achievement gaps between children from different social and economic backgrounds.
Training daycare staff also benefits the workers themselves, by enhancing their professional status as well as their employment horizons.
What we’re doing
We’ve conducted in-depth research involving many stakeholders in the field: Daycare center managers, institutions that train caregivers, academic and professional experts, and social change organizations.
Drawing on this research, we’ve developed a proposal for a government program to provide practical and relevant training and instruction to early childhood education professionals.
We’ve also established a partnership among relevant organizations, activists, and experts.
Together, we’ll create public campaigns and engage in advocacy to ensure that all Israeli children receive quality early education.
Our Goals
A government decision to allocate a multi-year budget for a targeted training and instruction program, enabling all daycare workers to be trained within the next 5-10 years
Focusing resources on on-the-job training for people already employed in daycare settings
Conducting training within work hours, with full pay, to ensure high levels of participation (with government reimbursement to employers for the purpose of hiring replacements during training hours), or providing financial compensation for workers who learn in their own time
Allowing pedagogic institutions, in collaboration with employers, to design the course curriculum in accordance with their professional judgement and trainees’ needs
Comprehensive assessment of the trainings’ impact, to ensure resources are allocated to the most effective programs
Our Achievement
We hit important milestones in driving change. We mobilized broad support from decision-makers, heads of local authorities, parents, and educators and persuaded the Ministry of Education to invest 25 times more than in previous years in the training and education of early childhood educators working with children from birth until the age of three. In response to our work, the Ministry of Education has pledged to provide 220 hours of fully-funded training for 10,000 early childhood educators in 2022.
Partners
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