Maintaining our reputation as a world leader in ECE

Early childhood education services are still coming to  terms with the impact of funding cuts announced in the government’s budget in May. As a not-for-profit service, every cent of government funding to kindergarten goes into supporting high quality early childhood education. We are working on ways to ensure our commitment to high quality services and 100% qualified teachers and to affordable services for families can be met across our kindergarten network.

Like kindergarten, other early childhood services are also considering their options. Last week, there was significant media coverage relating to the results of a recent survey undertaken by the Early Childhood Council of its member centres. The survey asked questions about how education and care centres would likely respond to the cuts. Over 500 centres responded, with two-thirds being privately owned and one third not-for-profit.

It wasn’t surprising that centres with 80 per cent or more qualified staff are expecting the budget cuts to equate to a substantial loss in funding, with most anticipating losing between $20,000 and $80,000 a year per centre. The survey revealed that cuts in service quality such as reducing the number of qualified teachers are likely, and costs to parents will increase between $10 and $40 per week. Where these services employ 100% qualified teachers, the cost to quality and financial costs are likely to be far greater.

Early childhood education services will respond in different ways to the budget cut-backs – that much is clear. But where will it leave parents, and more importantly children in those decisions? What will it mean for New Zealand’s first class reputation as a world leader in early childhood education? What will that say about how we as a society, value our youngest citizens?