This election all political parties are campaigning to raise the productivity of citizens by ensuring optimal learning at all ages. The lifetime learning focus will start very young and will ensure that all of the nation’s young have access to actual learning. not languishing at home playing.
In the school system, flexibility is the key with many choices. Health minister Tempe Cho quoted research from the National Institute of How the Mind Works, citing that it is now recognized that people differ and that optimal education notices individual aptitudes, skills, and develops them .
The new universal education program will permit parents and children to select from a wide variety of educational settings from grade one, from in class learning, Zoom webinars, outdoor classes,, ski classes, classes from sailing ships, remote learning and online education. Timing will also be flexible with banked time, evening classes, summer school, early start or late start days, year round school or traditional calendar as students wish. Home schooling will be enabled and parents who wish to take children on extended trips will be empowered to create those experiential learning opportunities and get funding assistance to do so.
There will also be options of focus, with sports schools that nurture budding Olympic athletes, ,all boys, all girls schools, traditional schools with uniforms and schools with casual dress codes. There will be options of schools with languages of English, French, Mandarin, Spanish,, indigenous languages, German and there will options to study Latin, Greek or any other language if local demand warrants it.
There will be optional courses for advanced academic study of math, chemistry, and entry level training in the trades, woodshop, culinary arts, auto shop, as well as emerging classes in computer animation, film production, drama and theatre production, choral and instrumental music and options to attend conferences and perform using these skills.
In the earlier years there will be daycare. The daycare will be between 7Am and 6PM. across the nation and will offer a low cost $10 a day spot for any child . The federal government has established a universal curriculum to ensure that children all learn crawling and standing in a lock step monitored way. Trained staff will impart skills such as walking and talking, how to use a spoon or scissors, because at least one third of staff will have a college diploma. The daycares will not attempt to teach children to read which is an advanced skill difficult to develop in children with diverse attention spans but it will ensure they do coloring and chanting of alphabet letters till age 5. The daycare will ensure that children have ‘readiness to learn’ something they are not born with according to child psychologist I. V. Towers. Children will be taught vital socialization skills such as line up, sit up, and of course shut up.
The centres will offer uniform standardized regulated care, inspected at least monthly, something that ordinary families at home cannot possibly provide. An ambitious nutrition standardization plan will also ensure that no children eats unhealthy meals brought from home. Portions of food will be provided so children can take or leave whatever vegetable is served and eat them in any order, providing therefore choices.
All genders of children will be welcome and those of any physical, emotional or medical challenges will receive identical care to celebrate equality. Those not legally permitted to attend due to regulations forbidding entry of those with viral infections, pink eyes, head lice, measles, mumps, persistent cough , tummy ache or any bacterial infection can be assured that taxpayers will continue to fund the empty space waiting for them until they return. In the meantime as they heal, parents will be able to set up at their own expense makeshift arrangements.
In each daycare the adult child ratios will be kept to one adult for no more than fifteen toddlers to ensure that many of the two year olds’ questions get answered, at least two questions per child per day. In this way a spirit of enquiry and inquisitiveness will be fostered.
Political leaders note that this year is a pivotal moment in history, to finally set in place a national program of education in the nation with choice and attention to the unique needs of all citizens.
Equality and Caregiving 