Give poorest children free nursery places from age of two, say Labour

Iain Gray, Scottish Labour leader, said it was too late to wait until children were three to start learning, if Scotland was to solve its illiteracy problem.

He said: "We will only be able to tackle illiteracy effectively if we remove the barriers that prevent many people from acquiring these basic skills.

"Evidence shows that in areas where there are high levels of socio-economic disadvantage, we cannot wait until children reach the age of three.

"Our approach needs to start with the under-threes and be followed up in some instances all the way to children leaving school."

A literacy report commissioned by the party last year concluded as many as 13,000 children could be leaving primary school each year unable to read and write to an accepted standard.

Currently, children do not qualify for free provision until the term after their third birthday.

Mr Gray was speaking after visiting Lochview Nursery School in Glasgow, which helps up to 500 economically deprived families with children aged two to start their toddlers at nursery a year early.

Mr Gray claimed the extra year helps boost communication, behaviour, and basic numeracy and literacy skills, so that they are at the same stage as other children when they start primary school.

The two-year-old project was created as a pilot by the previous Scottish Executive but the funding was not continued by the current SNP Scottish Government.

Purnima Tanuku, chief executive of National Day Nurseries Association (NDNA), called for all political parties to invest more money in nursery education.

She said: "Studies show that initiatives such as this are a real investment, potentially helping the taxpayer make billions in savings from the need to intervene later in the child's life.

"Nurseries are ideally placed to offer early intervention, and evidence demonstrates that this can help put children on a more equal footing educationally and ensure that children receive equal opportunity to flourish in school."

Increasing nursery entitlement to three and four-year-olds by 50 per cent was one of the Scottish Government's election pledges which it looks set not to meet by the end of this parliament.

The Scottish Government last year said it was working to increase nursery entitlement to three-year-olds to 570 hours by August this year.

However, critics slammed the government for admitting it would not meet its promise to raise entitlement to 600 free hours within this parliament.

The government argued that simply increasing the hours to give the full 50 per cent increase would be problematic, as it would place a squeeze on planning and staff-development time.

In September, Scottish Government figures showed the number of registered childcare centres had fallen. Last January, there were 4,274 centres, compared to 4,336 at the same time in 2008.

And previously, nursery school leaders warned they would have to charge more to fulfil another government pledge to give every child access to a nursery teacher, unless more funding was provided.

A Scottish Government spokeswoman said:

"Successful implementation of the framework will support not only improved literacy and numeracy, but improvements to a child's life chances, future health and employability."

Analysis:

Purnima Tanuku: Helping our disadvantaged youngsters is a wise investment