Low Decile Children Will Miss Out on ECE

The steep jump in the cost of early childhood education will hit hardest those children who the government claims it is trying to target for ECE, says NZEI Te Riu Roa, the union representing teachers in the sector.

ECE charges rose 11.7 percent in the year to March 31, as centres and kindergartens prepared to absorb the $400m cut in funding for qualified teachers.

“The Prime Minister John Key said yesterday that the cost rise had nothing to do with the government, but there is simply no other explanation,” says NZEI executive member Hayley Whitaker.

“The tragedy is that children who the government said it would target for ECE are even more likely to miss out because of the cost rises. When the government made the $400m cut, it said it would redirect some of the money to hard-to-reach children, including Maori and Pasifica, who have lower rates of participation than other groups. Many of these children will now be excluded on the grounds of cost.”

Hayley says that fees will continue to rise because the first round of reduced funding only came about in February, and the biggest reductions will hit centres in July. “Many parents are now paying more on ECE than they are on their mortgages, and many families are simply cutting the hours their children attend.”

Hayley said it was disingenuous for government ministers to keep repeating that funding for the sector had trebled in the last 5 years, but participation had only gone up 1%. “The Ministry of Education’s own figures show the increase was just slightly more than double, and that children hugely increased their hours in ECE because of the 20 hours free policy. There were also significant increases in the participation rates of Maori and Pasifika children, and there are now hundreds more qualified teachers working in the sector.

“The full impact of the cuts will bite in coming months, and it will be today’s young children who carry the cost all their lives. Three reports released in the last month by ERO, the Office for the Children's Commissioner and the Ministry of Education all show that having qualified teachers is critical for high quality early learning.”

ENDS

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