Petition Launched Against Early Childhood Education Cuts

Petition Launched Against Early Childhood Education Cuts

A nationwide petition has been launched by the early childhood teachers union NZEI Te Riu Roa, calling on the government to reverse the cuts to early childhood funding and commit to more investment in early childhood education.

From today thousands of families will face increased fees as the cuts, which were announced in last year’s budget, take effect. The cuts significantly reduce funding for about 2,000 early childhood centres and services which have 80% or more fully qualified staff.

NZEI National Executive member Hayley Whitaker says the downstream effects are already being seen.

“We’re seeing families having to make some tough decisions as to whether they can afford to keep their children involved in early childhood education. Many services are having to put aside planned building and improvement work while others may have to look at laying off qualified staff to make ends meet.”

“It all sends a very poor message about the importance of early learning,” she says.

The petition calls for the funding cuts to be reversed and for the government to commit to a plan to invest 1% of GDP on early childhood education as recommended by UNICEF. An OECD report in 2009 showed New Zealand spent 0.4% of GDP - well below the OECD average.

“The government claims that early childhood funding has increased significantly in the past four years, but what it fails to acknowledge is that New Zealand is coming from a very low spending base. It is abhorrent that it continues to view investing in early childhood education as a cost, rather than an investment,” says Ms Whitaker.

“Children deserve the best start they can get in life, and it just doesn’t make sense for the government to continue to slash funding to the sector which has the most impact on the future of our society and our future citizens and taxpayers.”

ENDS

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