Early childhood education deserves investment not cuts

Spending on ECE should be seen as an investment not a means of balancing the government’s books, according to the education sector union NZEI.

The finance minister is signalling the government will move to contain the cost of ECE in this year’s Budget.

NZEI says the education of our youngest children should be a priority. NZ spends less than the OECD average on ECE and research shows that money spent on early childhood delivers significant investment returns.

NZEI vice president Judith Nowotarski, says: “What the government doesn’t seem to recognise is that the money spent on ECE over recent years has gone into raising quality, and making it more accessible for families. That is a worthwhile investment.”

NZEI believes the government is slowly chipping away at quality ECE. Last year it did a u-turn on agreed qualification targets and abandoned a commitment to having a 100 per cent qualified and registered teaching workforce by 2012.

Any change to the funding of the 20 Hours Free early childhood policy would also have serious implications for the community in terms of participation rates in ECE and for parents who would face extra costs.

“Reduction of early childhood funding will ring alarm bells for the sector and for parents. It would represent a huge step backwards and put the brakes on the enormous progress which has been made,” says Ms Nowotarski.

“Early childhood funding should be about investing in quality education and our children’s future.”