Teacher shortage say largest private provider.

Teacher shortage say largest private provider.

“We are short of around 300 suitably qualified teachers all over New Zealand to meet  the growth of new centres and the vacancies that we have,” says Wayne Wright, owner of Kidicorp, New Zealand’s largest private provider of early childhood education and care centres.

“This is a crisis – we are slowly chipping away at the problem  but we are very anxious that the teachers just aren’t there.

“The problem is nationwide. Gisborne is as bad as anywhere but we have similar problems in Auckland. We have a brand new purpose built centre, Topkids in Gisborne about to open and after spending over $8000 in advertising we haven’t been able to attract teachers to staff it. We have children waiting to get started; we’re about to spend $150,000 on fitting it out and resourcing it with new toys and equipment, but no teachers.

“Compared with other early childhood education providers we know we make a huge investment in our teachers. Teachers are our most important asset which is why we provide so many benefits – it is their commitment to quality and love of children which helps make a difference to the lives of over 7000 children within our centres annually.”

“We have a huge investment in the sector. This year we’ve spent over $2 million on refurbishing centres and $7 million on building new centres.  This year we have added over 850 child spaces and 12 centres to have over 90 centres nationwide. Next year we will be adding a further 1500 places and 20 new centres.

“Early childhood education is one of the most important steps in a child’s development. We support the Government’s stance on ensuring more children get an ECE start so they are prepared for school, but if the teachers aren’t there what then?” asks Mr Wright.

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