Early Education Federation Election Forum

Early Education Federation Election Forum article for community newspapers

The Early Education Federation, an umbrella organisation for seventeen national organisations with an interest in early childhood education (ECE), is hosting a free election forum in Wellington on August 11th and invites interested community members in Wellington to attend. The Early Education Federation spokesperson, Sue Cherrington, says the forum is a chance for the community to hear directly from political party spokespeople about their early childhood education policies.

“Spokespeople from six major political parties will be at the event. This is a chance for anyone in the community with an interest in early childhood education to ask questions of the parties which represent them in Parliament,” says Cherrington.

The forum is also an opportunity to highlight the Early Education Federation key policy priorities for 2014 which are to: ensure quality in ECE alongside increasing participation; support ECE services to cater better for children with special needs; and, improve national planning for provision of ECE services.

“New Zealand is a world leader in early childhood education,” says Cherrington. “It is important that we build on our success in early childhood education and continue to improve the quality, so all families can have access to affordable early childhood education which meets their unique needs.”

The government currently has a Better Public Services target of increasing participation in early childhood education to 98% of all children starting school. The Early Education Federation supports this work but wants to see quality improved alongside this goal. This includes improving early identification, intervention and support for children with special needs in ECE.

To support the overall provision of early childhood education, the government also has a role to play planning how and where services are provided so all communities have the early childhood services they need. A market-based approach alone will not provide high quality ECE services which meet the needs of all children and families, particularly in low-income communities.

The wellbeing of children and families is emerging as a top priority among all of the political parties this election, and early childhood education policies feature prominently. Early childhood education forms the foundation for children’s learning. It is important that communities are well-informed about the future policy direction for all of our diverse early childhood education services.

The 2014 Forum , Early Childhood Matters, is on Monday the 11th August at 7.00 pm, at the City Gallery Wellington. The event is free and open to everyone, but please register at www.earlyeducationfederation.com The following speakers will discuss their party’s early childhood education policies and respond to questions: Paul Foster-Bell (National Party); Chris Hipkins (Labour Party); Chris McKenzie (Maori Party); Catherine Delahunty (Green Party); Tracey Martin (NZ First Party) and Te Hamua Nikora (Mana Party). Amanda Coulston will be the MC for the evening.

For more information about the Early Education Federation, please visit www.earlyeducationfederation.com.

ENDS

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