Equal Opportunities

In this essay I am going to explain the term ” equal opportunities” in relation to early years practice. Explore this in the context of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and explain the impact the Convention on UK legislation. I am also going to suggest some steps which in my consideration can implement equality of opportunity for children in UK. Equal opportunity is a descriptive term for an approach intended to give equal access to a certain social environment or to ensure people are not specifically excluded from participating in activities such as education, employment or health care on the basis of immutable traits. The lack of access might cause poor self-esteem, respect, misunderstandings, stereotyping and discrimination. (Bruce and Meggit, 2002) Also it means opening up the universe for the child and family so that they can take full benefit of the early childhood activities in school and in society. Equal opportunity does not mean treating everyone the same. The Common areas of discrimination are race, financial capability, gender and the ability of the child. Every child's future depends on opportunities provided to it in his early years of life which usually defines the child's outlook towards life. This will be the window through which the child will define race, gender, nationality, religion, family set-up, special needs and sexual orientation of parents in his or her own way. The teacher and parents will play the most vital role in the child's early years of development and they will be providing all the vital elements of this process to build the child's future. Teachers and parents have to make sure that he is in the right environment for

Bibliography: Bruce, .T and Meggitt, C. (2002) Child Care and Education, Hodder and Stoughton, London www.unicef.org UNICEF (Undated) Convention on Rights of the Child, 1990, http://www.ohchr.org/english/law/pdf/crc.pdf http://www.crin.ch Kandola, R. and Fullerton, J. (1998), The equal opportunity handbook http://www.child-abuse.com http://www.publication.parliament.uk http://www.wikipedia.org