Taskforce Needs to Focus on Children

News Release 8 October 2010

Taskforce Needs to Focus on Children

The Government’s newly established Taskforce on Early Childhood Education (ECE) needs to ensure that positive outcomes for all children is the focus of their work, according to New Zealand Kindergartens (NZK) Chief Executive Clare Wells.

NZK is the umbrella organisation representing twenty nine kindergarten associations covering 430 kindergartens nation-wide. As an organisation it is committed to providing high quality education for all young children.

“There is an enormous body of evidence to show the economic, social and educational benefits of high quality ECE for children, their families and for society which I expect and hope the Taskforce will draw heavily on,” said Clare Wells.

“We know certain factors need to be in place to ensure high quality ECE services which include having qualified teachers and good teacher:child ratios. We also know that evidence shows investment in ECE leads to significant savings in the future. We would expect the Taskforce to present these findings when it reports back to the Government in March 2011.”

The Taskforce was announced yesterday, without reference to or consultation with the ECE sector.

“While setting up the Taskforce can be seen as a positive step, I think it would have been useful to have engaged with the sector prior to its establishment. It would also have been beneficial if the Taskforce had been established earlier so that it could have reported back to the Minister prior to the Government cutting funding to the sector.

“I only hope that the Taskforce has been established to undertake a genuine examination of the current state of ECE; to support it and improve it, rather than to simply provide the rationale for decisions already made,” said Clare Wells.

ENDS