NZEI supports properly funded early childhood education

1 October 2013

NZEI supports call for properly funded early childhood education

Teachers and school support staff have overwhelmingly endorsed the call for the Government to properly fund the early childhood education sector.

The call came at the NZEI Te Riu Roa Annual Meeting being held in Rotorua this week.

The members attending the conference voted to support any action called by the NZEI Te Riu Roa National Executive to secure a fair settlement for kindergarten teachers.

National President Judith Nowotarski says early childhood education has been under-funded by the government and this is also taking its toll on the ability to pay staff fairly.

The Government talks of wanting to increase access to early childhood education services but is not prepared to fund the sector to ensure that all children receive quality early childhood education.

Good quality early childhood education is vitally important and makes huge differences to the long term educational outcomes of children.

Yet the government is starving the sector of funding and making it increasingly difficult to for centres to retain and employ qualified staff.

ENDS

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