World Teachers Day protest over ECE funding cuts

World Teachers Day protest over ECE funding cuts

30 October 2015

A crowd of about 100 braved Wellington’s early morning chill to celebrate World Teachers Day and call on the government to reverse funding cuts in early childhood education.

Concerned parents and teachers gathered at the Parliament Cenotaph to send a message to Education Minister Hekia Parata and the Government that every child needs a great teacher.

Labour MPs Chris Hipkins and Grant Robertson addressed the crowd and promised that a Labour Government would restore funding to services staffed with 100% qualified teachers and work towards having 100% qualified teachers in every ECE centre.

Kindergarten head teacher and NZEI immediate past president Judith Nowotarski spoke at the event and said it was demoralising to see quality ECE undermined.

“Every child should have access to quality services and qualified teachers who understand child development and how they learn. It shouldn’t just be for those families wealthy enough to afford it. Quality ECE is an investment in our children and their future and should be properly funded by Government,” she said.

The government used to fund centres up to 100% of qualified teachers, but reduced that to 80% five years ago. Since then, services committed to 100% quality teaching have been scrambling to meet the shortfall, but they are finding it unsustainable without proper funding. The operational funding for all ECE services has also been frozen, which impacts all services, regardless of their proportion of qualified teachers.

The only additional ECE funding in the past five years has been for increased participation, with no extra to cover inflation or other growing costs.

The lost funding means that many ECE services are struggling. For example, Whānau Manaaki Kindergartens (previously Wellington Kindergarten Association) recently announced a range of cost-cutting measures. Teachers will have less planning and assessment time and are being asked to volunteer to reduce hours. Forced redundancies may be required as a last resort.

ENDS

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