Quality ECE - Worth the Investment

When we started the ‘great start 100%’ promotion almost a year ago, it was with the sole aim of promoting the benefits of high quality Early Childhood Education. That aim hasn’t changed, and while it may sound repetitive, the benefits of quality ECE simply cannot be overstated.

It has been said that “Quality early education is as essential for a productive 21st century workforce as roads or the internet; investing in it grows the economy.”

We agree, and others do too – economists, researchers, teachers, parents, even politicians.

In 2008, the government’s key social sector agencies reported on the critical social challenges for Aotearoa New Zealand in the future in its Social Outcomes Briefing. The Health, Education, Social Development and Justice ministries presented an analysis of the issues they see facing the social sector. Early childhood education featured highly in the multi-agency proposals to tackle issues for vulnerable families and educational underachievement.

Most importantly we need to strengthen our focus on tackling problems before they escalate and become entrenched. … Gearing our system more strongly towards resilience-building, prevention and early intervention is critical to containing spending pressures and to improving long term fiscal sustainability.

Investing in high quality ECE is an ‘early intervention’. Initiatives identified by the agencies that can contribute included: effective teaching for all students by increasing the number of qualified ECE teachers, providing quality professional development for teachers, quality assessment tools for learning, early detection and new preventative programmes in health, and supporting high-quality services for the most vulnerable children and families.

Here is another endorsement of the qualified teachers being central to realising the long term benefits of ECE.