A third of early childhood educators say they have frequently considered leaving the sector during the past six months, according to NZEI Te Riu Roa’s latest early childhood education workforce survey report for 2025.
Now in its third year, Kōriporipo is the largest workforce survey for early childhood educators in Aotearoa, with more than 2,000 educators taking part.
The number one reason teachers cited for wanting to leave the sector was burnout, followed closely by feeling the sector was heading in the wrong direction, high workload, and uncertainty over the future of the pay parity scheme, which seeks to align early educators’ pay with that of primary teachers.
The report highlights the difficult conditions early educators face, including current regulated minimum ratios of teachers to children that 79% of respondents agree or strongly agree don’t allow educators to satisfy health and safety requirements.
More than 90% are concerned that these ratios don’t allow for the learning conditions that create quality education, which is especially notable given that 96% agree or strongly agree that children are needing more social, emotional and learning support these days. However, learning support is difficult to access, say 92% of respondents.
Early childhood education teacher and NZEI Te Riu Roa national representative Zane McCarthy says the survey results paint an upsetting picture.
“I am very, very sad but not surprised that so many educators are considering leaving the sector. One of the main reasons for this is that workloads are too high, because our mandated ratios of teachers to children are too low,” he says.
“It’s clear that we need change in early childhood education if we want to attract and retain great teachers to work with children.”
Workload was another key issue, with 62% of respondents spending more than an hour each week doing unpaid work, and almost a quarter doing more than that.
When it came to pay, only a third of respondents felt that they were adequately remunerated for their mahi, with more than 60% agreeing or strongly agreeing that the pay parity scheme had changed their life for the better.
Sally Griffin, the convenor of NZEI Te Riu Roa’s early childhood education member leader group and an early childhood education teacher, says she is worried that with the Government considering cutting teachers’ pay parity scheme under its current ECE Funding Review, it will be even harder to retain and attract qualified early childhood teachers.
“After fighting so hard for pay parity, teachers are really worried the Government is going to axe the scheme altogether. During a cost-of-living crisis, this is hugely concerning for teachers.
“When I see teachers who think the sector is headed in the wrong direction, I know it's because they feel completely ignored and undervalued. The Government has made a lot of decisions about early childhood education recently that fly in the face of what we, on the ground, keep telling them the sector needs," she says.
“We need significant government investment in ECE to begin to solve the many issues faced by kaiako, such as poor teacher-to-child ratios, heavy workloads, lack of learning support for tamariki, and low pay for the mahi we do when compared to other teaching groups.”
The Kōriporipo Early Childhood Education Workforce Survey Report 2025 will be presented at NZEI Te Riu Roa's annual conference on Wednesday 24 September. Read the report here.
ENDS
Editor notes
- 32.8% of respondents said that in the past six months they had frequently thought about leaving the sector.
- 78.7% of respondents agreed or strongly agreed that it would be impossible to satisfy health and safety requirements at current regulated minimum ratios.
- 93.3% of respondents agree that current regulated minimum ratios do not enable the best quality learning environments for tamariki; this is consistent with previous years of the survey.
- 91.9% of respondents agreed or strongly agreed that it has been more difficult to access learning support for children who need it, with 75% strongly agreeing.
- 96.1% of respondents agreed or strongly agreed that in the last few years children have needed more social, emotional and learning support.
- 61.9% of respondents were spending more than an hour each week doing unpaid work. 21.3% were doing more than an hour each day.
- 61.4% of participants agreed or strongly agreed that pay parity had changed their life for the better, up from 56.7% last year. This included a significant increase in those strongly agreeing, from 24.8% to 34.4%.
- Only a third of respondents (33.6%) felt adequately remunerated for the work they do; marginally up on last year (31.5%).
- Respondents were asked whether they agreed that the early childhood education sector is heading in the right direction. 47.2% strongly disagreed, up from 31.1% last year.