NZEI Te Riu Roa has asked Associate Education Minister David Seymour to reject changes proposed by the employer group, the Early Childhood Council, that would gut pay parity for ECE teachers.
The education union says the proposals would cut teacher pay, undervalue teachers, and undermine pay parity as educators grapple with cost-of-living pressures.
“The ECC’s short-sighted proposal would have a significant impact on the majority of New Zealand’s ECE teachers and would negatively impact on retention and turnover of those critical to the development of our youngest learners,” NZEI Te Riu Roa National Secretary Stephanie Mills warned in a letter to Minister Seymour, who is the minister responsible for early childhood education.
“Teachers are professionals and should be paid accordingly. They have completed qualifications to work in this profession and have relied upon the predictable step increases rewarding their skills and increasing expertise and experience in the sector for some years now,” she added.
“Don’t sell our youngest tamariki short by making changes which can only benefit for-profit employers aiming to make money out of children’s education.”
Joleen Barclay, an early childhood educator for nearly 20 years, said “the hurt of removing pay parity would go far beyond a teacher’s pay packet.”
“It says that the people who hold our youngest tamariki through their first brave steps away from whānau are worth less,” Mrs Barclay said.
“I’ve held children when they cried for home, watched a quiet child find their voice, and stood alongside whānau through some of their hardest days. That work asks us to bring our knowledge, our hearts, and our whole selves, day after day.
“When an experienced kaiako can no longer afford to stay, a child loses someone who knows their story, what makes them laugh, what frightens them, and how to help them feel they belong. You cannot tell us the early years matter while making it harder for the people who do this work to remain.
“Our tamariki only get one childhood. Please value the kaiako who walk beside them through it,” Mrs Barclay said.
ENDS
Note to editors:
The ECC proposes limiting ECE teacher pay increases to the percentage increase provided by government funding for operational costs. Under this proposal, ECE teachers would no longer receive the same pay increases as their colleagues in kindergartens and schools.