April 13 2011

A leader in New Zealand’s early childhood sector is backing the Government’s intention to not raise funding levels based only on trained teachers, and has called for a full review of the allocation of ECE funding.

Jenny Yule the managing director of New Zealand’s largest provider of in-home childcare PORSE, said change is needed to distinguish between childcare for under three’s and education for three and four year olds.

Ms Yule said the argument for trying to convince parents that their young children will be disadvantaged if teachers are not trained is flawed.

“Insisting that the Government must continue to fund the industry to pay for only qualified teachers to care and educate all children under five, is shortsighted and does not recognise the best outcomes for babies and toddlers.” Ms Yule said.

The Government must now go even further with a complete review of how ECE services invest the funding they received. This would give the sector a chance to review how funding is allocated, rather than insisting that only trained teachers need to work with children up to the age of three.

“ We need to take early childhood education back to basics when kindergartens were about preparation for school with trained teachers. Kindergartens did not care for babies.

“Continuing to fund only trained teachers overlooks the needs for under three- year-olds to be in secure attachment relationships with people who understand early brain development. We know that our experiences and relationships in these early years have a direct bearing on crime, family violence and physical and mental health,” she said.

Ms Yule said a paradigm shift is happening among New Zealand parents who are recognising that their under three-year-olds should spend time in one-on-one adult relationships and the home environment meets their emotional and attachment needs.

“In New Zealand we have thousands of experienced people working in early childhood education and proving they can effectively nurture, care and educate young children without a formal teaching qualification.”

“We need to bring back the traditional model of free kindergarten for three and four year olds with trained teachers, and then develop a “fit for purpose” qualification that provides adequate content specific to infants and toddlers.”

“Fit for Purpose” qualifications in early childhood services would greatly support the Children Commission’s recommendations for enhancing the levels of knowledge and skills for those who care for infants and toddlers.”

“We had it so right in the past where kindergartens, with fully qualified teachers, prepared three and four year-olds for school. In the quest for more funding we have turned daycare centres into pseudo-kindergartens that purport the need to ‘teach’ babies, ” Ms Yule said.

“Times are tough, there is not a bottomless pit of money and prudent funding may generate new thinking to co-create relevant models of childcare that will not compromise early learning and care, nor impose higher fees on families.

Parents and children will not miss out, if early childhood services are prepared to review their staffing and qualification structures,” she said.

Ms Yule welcomes the opportunity to work with Government and the sector to rethink the investment in early childhood education for preschoolers and quality education and care for infants and toddlers as indicated by the Children’s Commissioner February 2011 report.

ENDS

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