Put tamariki at the heart of decisions about ECE

Every child deserves quality early childhood education. However, for years the sector has been in crisis — serious teacher shortages, unmanageable workloads, and teacher-to-child ratios that mean tamariki can't get the quality teaching time they deserve.

Instead of solving these issues, the Government is now recommending changes as part of its ECE Regulatory Review that prioritise profit over quality ECE:

• Undermining qualification requirements for teachers.
• Changing or removing up to 74% of ECE licensing criteria, including scrapping safety measures like immunisation record requirements, water temperature safety valves, emergency evacuation meeting points, and a separate toilet for adults.
  
• Removing requirements that ensure quality teaching practices as part of our world-leading curriculum, Te Whāriki.
• Removing requirements to honour Te Tiriti and acknowledge Māori as tangata whenua.
• Removing requirements for regular updates and whānau input into children’s learning.
• Removing requirements for ECE centres to do long-term planning and regular quality reviews.

Take action now

Sound the alarm about this Government’s ‘profit over people’ agenda.

• Sign our online petition.
  
• Print out an A4 petition to sign and share.
• Print out an editable A4 petition cover sheet to address to your MP.
  
• Print out an A4 information sheet about recommended changes.
• Print out an editable sign to call on your local MP (or for key MP names, click here).

More activities

• Fill in multi-lingual signs ('How would early childhood education look if...') for your centre.
• Print out a visual roadmap to show where ECE is headed.
• Order your own 'Put tamariki at the heart' t-shirt.

Te reo Māori resources

• A4 petition (te reo version)

Parents resources

• A4 information sheet (for parents)
  

Letters to Parliament

NZEI Te Riu Roa, academics, and other allies have written letters to the Government, urging them to not proceed with the recommendations.

• NZEI Te Riu Roa & allies (January 2025)
• Academics' open letter (January 2025). You can add your voice to this letter here.
• Teaching Council of Aotearoa New Zealand (February 2025).