Plea to support high quality early childhood education

Plea to support high quality early childhood education

30/06/17

The government appears to be ignoring concerns from early childhood education (ECE) leaders about its longstanding underfunding of high quality ECE services.

A group of eight ECE sector organisations supports New Zealand Kindergartens, NZEI Te Riu Roa and Te Rito Maioha in their call for better funding for high quality teacher-led ECE.

We want to see fairer funding for all ECE services – including parent-led, whānau-led, Māori medium services, hospital play specialists and early intervention services - to support high quality ECE. We think it’s important parents and whānau continue to have choices about which ECE service their children attend, and that all young children have access to benefits that only come from high quality ECE.

We are calling on the government to restore the 2010 per-child hourly funding rates for teacher-led services and adjust for cost increases absorbed since then. We also ask for an increase in funding to reflect cost increases since 2010 for parent-led, whānau-led, Māori medium services, hospital play specialists and early intervention services.

Bethlehem Tertiary Institute
Christian Early Childhood Education of Aotearoa Association
Hospital Play Specialists Association New Zealand
Montessori Aotearoa New Zealand
National Association of ECE Directors in Universities
Ngā Puna Whakatupu o Te Wānanga o Aotearoa
NZ Home-based Early Childhood Education Association
NZ Playcentre Federation

ENDS

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