Call for first national children's day

Following its official launch last week, The Save Childhood Movement is encouraging family and childcare organisations to join in the event.

A survey carried out by SCM found that only two per cent of teachers believe that the education system cultivates a passion for learning to coincide with its launch.

It examined the views of 177 early years professionals including childminders, nursery and primary school teachers, headteachers, school governors, lecturers and academics. It was conducted between 10 and 17 April 2013 and was prepared in partnership with the Barrett Values Centre.

Around 67 per cent of those surveyed said the education system should be child-centered and 60 per cent thought creativity should be prioritised.

Half of the respondents believed that early education should emphasise the importance of play. Just two per cent believed that the current education system reflected any of these values. None of the respondents believed that the system was empowering.

When asked which words best described the current state of British education, the most commonly used phrases were: bureaucracy, adult-driven, results focus, focuses on targets, and top-down pressure.

In contrast, the phrases that respondents thought should reflect the education system were: empowering, creativity, child-centered, passion for learning and importance of play.

Wendy Ellyat, founding director and CEO of SCM said, 'It is simply unacceptable that there should be such a disparity between the values that teachers themselves hold and the systems that we are then asking them to work within.  How can we expect them to be creative, spontaneous, passionate and empowered adults that we really need around children when they are constantly ground down by the demands of the system? We need something better and the movement is determined to help fight for this.'

SCM intends to extend this survey to include a more significant number of the teaching profession.