Increased participation at the expense of quality

Increased participation at the expense of quality - Publication date: 25 August 2010

NZ Childcare Association (NZCA) Chief Executive Nancy Bell welcomes the government's initiative to invest in early childhood education participation for children in low socio-economic communities within Waitakere and Northland.

"We are pleased to see Government investing in increasing children's participation in early childhood education, particularly if this means that services are a good fit for the local community."

However NZCA is deeply concerned that this initiative is coming at the cost of funding cuts to centres that employ higher numbers of qualified teachers.  From February 2011, two thirds of early childhood education services will lose funding which enabled them to employ more than 80% qualified and registered teachers.  This means that participation increases will likely come at the expense of quality.

"It can't be one or the other; research is clear that if early childhood education is to be beneficial it needs to be of high quality.  The great irony of this is that the current policy decisions may result in increasing fees which many communities will be unable to afford. Unfortunately these are likely to be the communities that would most benefit from high quality early childhood education." 

ENDS