Early childhood education teachers’ fears have been confirmed as the Early Childhood Education (ECE) Funding Review consultation document, released this week, proposes options which sacrifice educational quality and outcomes for tamariki such as scrapping teachers’ pay parity scheme.
This runs completely counter to the announced expansion of oral literacy programme, ENRICH, which relies on qualified teachers and good teacher: child ratios for its success.*
“It is disastrous for the entire sector and for all tamariki that pay parity for early childhood teachers is on the chopping block and does nothing to address the ongoing early childhood teacher shortage,” says Sally Griffin, a kindergarten teacher and national NZEI Te Riu Roa representative for early childhood education.
"Our pay parity scheme – a pathway to see early childhood teachers paid on par with other teachers – was fought for over many years and is one of the major contributing factors in keeping teachers in the sector and recognising their qualifications and years of experience, which raises the quality of early education for our youngest tamariki. It’s alarming to see a proposal for it to be scrapped – all by a group of so-called sector experts, not one of whom has a teaching qualification.”
Other proposals include:
• Cutting additional funding to early childhood education services that prioritise quality education by employing higher percentages of (including 100%) qualified teachers. This would have a dramatic impact on the viability of services currently offering the highest quality early childhood education.
• Removing transparency requirements for services to share annual audited accounts with the Ministry of Education, including how public funding is spent at centres – an important accountability measure when many early childhood education centres are for-profit businesses.
• No inclusion of obligations to honour Te Tiriti, or of reo Māori or Pacific language services.
The review consultation did not propose improving teacher: child ratios, or how greater steps towards quality early childhood education could be made. This is out of step with other jurisdictions, for example in Australia, looking to improve quality, safety, and affordability for whānau.
NZEI Te Riu Roa Te Manukura President Ripeka Lessels says the report is very disappointing for kaiako and whānau hoping for meaningful positive change.
“It applies a visionless approach to funding the early childhood sector, and it will lead to the winding back of hard-won progress on quality and professional standards across early childhood education.”
In its research, the Ministerial Advisory Group did not quantify how much profit providers make from children’s education, how much parents pay in fees, and none of the funding review’s proposed recommendations seek to limit profit made from education.
“Ultimately the government has failed the public by not including the hundreds of millions of dollars which are currently returned to owners, shareholders, and investors in profit in its review of early childhood education. They have also failed the children of Aotearoa by failing to see the paramount importance of investing in their future.”
Kaiako, parents and whānau are invited to submit on the review until 6 August.
Full information on the Early Childhood Education (ECE) Funding Review can be found here.