The government's review of early childhood education (ECE) must include increased funding for the sector, a teacher union says.Education Minister Anne Tolley yesterday announced a taskforce had been set up to review the effectiveness of ECE spending, whic
The government's review of early childhood education (ECE) must include increased funding for the sector, a teacher union says.
Education Minister Anne Tolley yesterday announced a taskforce had been set up to review the effectiveness of ECE spending, which she said would be $1.3 billion next year.
"It's vital this money is well spent to ensure the greatest number of children gain access to ECE and fully benefit from it," she said.
"The previous government's ECE cost blow-out saw funding treble but the number of children in ECE grew by less than 1%."
Primary teachers union New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI), which represents early childhood teachers, said increasing investment and establishing a timeframe for funding 100 percent qualified teachers in the sector had to be the cornerstones of the review.
NZEI vice-president Judith Nowotarski said New Zealand needed to spend more, not less, on ECE if it wanted a highly educated society and a more productive economy.
Ms Nowotarski said it was "simply not true" that costs had increased without a corresponding increase in participation.
"The numbers of young children benefiting from sustained, regular participation in early childhood education has been growing steadily over the past decade, as the Government's figures show," she said.
"Early childhood education delivers returns on investment of up to $17 for every $1 spent because of the benefits it provides in terms of better education and health levels, higher workforce participation, reduced welfare dependency and lower crime levels."
Labour's ECE spokeswoman Sue Moroney said the review would almost certainly lead to more cost cutting.
"If Anne Tolley was serious about having a taskforce on ECE, its terms of reference would include monitoring the effect on families of fee increases and the quality of education children received after the number of qualified teachers have reduced at each centre," she said.
