20 Hours Free Optimistic – New Survey

20 Hours Free Optimistic – New Survey

Over 90 percent of early childhood centres surveyed by Te Tari Puna Ora o Aotearoa/NZ Childcare Association (NZCA) will either offer the government’s 20 Hours Free service or are still considering the issue.

NZCA, a leading early childhood education (ECE) organisation, recently surveyed over 470 of its members nationwide who own or manage early childhood centres in both community and private situations. Of those, 162 people responded to the survey.

Fifty percent of the 162 said they would implement the 20 Hours Free policy with the new rates either with no significant changes, or with some changes. Over 40 percent said they hadn’t yet decided whether to offer the service and only 8 percent they definitely would not offer the free hours.

“This is a quite a different picture to reports which suggest that a majority of ECE services will reject the 20 Hours outright, “said Rosina Merry, President of NZCA.

“Our survey showed that many centres need to work through the logistics of offering the service, discuss the implications with parents or committees or need more information from the Ministry of Education.

“Others are likely to offer the 20 Hours by changing the fees for three and four year olds who stay beyond the free time or will charge fees for additional services such as lunches or special activities,” Ms Merry said.

“The indications are that as the July 07 start up date approaches, many ECE services throughout the country will find ways to offer this valuable service to New Zealand parents and children,” she said.

However the survey raised concerns that the costs of having higher numbers of early childhood teachers qualified and registered were not adequately recognised in the new rates.

“NZCA supports the government’s strategic plan for early childhood education which aims to have all teachers qualified and registered by 2012, so we will be carefully monitoring member feedback on this issue,” Ms Merry said.

ENDS