International Perspectives in Childhood Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

International Perspectives in Childhood - Essay Example Italy, Sweden and the United Kingdom provide a diverse range of social, economic and political contexts. Including this, they have various policies directed towards the education and care of young children. In this paper, an evaluation between the pre-schooling practices in Sweden, Italy and United Kingdom, exploring the social, political and economic factors influencing pre-schooling in these countries and to critical analysis of the role of children’s right in pre-schools these countries is discussed. Sweden, Italy and U.K are rank in the most top 21 developing countries in the world in childcare well-being Sweden 5.0, Italy 10.0 and U.K 18.2. The UNICEF report card 7 (The United Nations Children’s Fund, 2007). It is discussed in the paper that Sweden offers a maximum fee policy, which lets parents to spend between 1% and 3 % of their family’s income on the childcare. It depends on the number of children they have. Whereas the government of the United Kingdom o ffers 12.5 hours of free early learning in a week, which is applicable to all form of childcare for at least 28 weeks of the year (Guardian, 2008). The paper also discusses the structure of the classes and the approach of teaching adopted by the three countries. The discussion ends on the conclusion where it decides the Swedish nurseries to have the best approach and providing more freedom for the children to play and explore new things. This way, without forcing children, they become geared up to learn new things at appropriate time (Bennett, 2001). Political factor surrounding these countries In Sweden the maximum rate is LIMITED to ?102 a month which is ?1224 a year, families pay less for a second child and a third is around 0.025% or 1% of the family income (Sundelin, 2008). This is because In Sweden, preschools can either run privately or publically. Municipal government of Sweden is responsible for providing preschool, after three to four years. The government made sure that t he places are provided at a reasonable price, including meals. For Swedish children, the maximum cost for the preschool is SEK 1,260 per month for every child. (Sweden.Se, 2011). In the U.K the average yearly preschool parents spend for 25 hours per week stands at ?5,028 per child (Daycare Trust, 2011). The childcare provided in UK is expensive and most of the times parents cannot afford it. Same is the case with Italy, where the daycare centers are not only expensive and limited but offer less number of hours per day, which makes the parents’ job a difficult task. Thus, when the statistics are compared, it is seen that the preschool educators of the three countries are trying to provide facilities to the young children; likewise they are promoting educational structure in their countries. However, the stability that is provided by Sweden is the best. Parents may want to go back to work but good quality childcare is not really affordable for most people that work in the U.K a nd Italy, some people may find it more beneficial not to go back to work and get help from the government for childcare, which have a huge impact on the economy. The government policy in Sweden makes it affordable for their people to go back to work and still have quality childcare. The government not only shares the economical burden of the children’s education, they also give children best day care facilities that can help the parents to continue their job while the children are in safe hands. In Sweden the max