The Forum had, as a priority, the need for early years practitioners to be graduates and held that 'a proper core graduate workforce should be developed'. Has this Forum had its head stuck in the sand for the past year or so, or is it simply waving away the financial difficulties workers in the poorly paid early years sector face - never mind the addition of university fees and costs estimated to leave the average student with more than 30,000 of debt when they graduate?
Even more importantly, there is a growing awareness that we are all 'differently but equally able'. To push everyone down the graduate route when the important NVQ channel is available is short sighted. We need to accept that vocational training is as important as academic courses and is vital in the hands-on early years sector.
As chair of East Riding Early Years Development and Childcare Partnership and a Montessori practitioner of many years' standing, I have seen too many armchair philosophers who wouldn't know one end of a child from another - never mind bringing to bear the skills, love and enthusiasm that constitute the foundation for anyone working with society's richest resource, our children.
Rosie Pressland Pocklington Montessori School, York
