National's Early Childhood Care and Education Policy
Each Monday morning I take real pleasure in dropping my three-year-old boy off at Kindy in Levin and spending some time playing with the puzzles or other activities available. It’s been something we have done since he turned two and going to Kindy is now something he really looks forward to and enjoys. The teachers do a great job making sure that the children feel valued.
As a parent I see many benefits from him spending some time in an early childhood centre, learning from others, sharing with and respecting others, accepting other rules and so on. It’s all good stuff.
He and the friends he is making will help shape our district’s future. In fact, our young people will be driving our economy and supporting us in our retirement so it’s hugely important we do our best by them now. Ensuring they have a good education plays a key role in this, and it’s important they start this education prior to attending school in early childhood.
The most recent stats I have show that 68% of eligible children in the Levin area are enrolled in early childhood education, while the average for New Zealand is closer to 95%. So we have a bit of work to do locally to improve access and encourage more children to attend an early childhood centre and gain the benefits.
The pre-school years are crucial in the life of a child. They take the first big steps in their development, and they start to learn about the world around them, and how to interact with other people and their community.
National recently released its early childhood policy and within it believes that all children should grow up in an environment with love, understanding, and happiness, and that parents have the primary responsibility for the upbringing and development of their children.
The key goals of our policy are to improve the choice and quality of early childhood care and education available to parents. We announced that we will keep the 20 Hours Early Childhood Education (ECE) scheme for three and four-year-olds and maintain existing subsidies and fee controls.
We will, however, improve the scheme to make it much more flexible and available to more children, while giving parents the freedom to choose which facility best suits them. We will also remove the misleading word ‘free’ from its title and instead call the scheme 20 Hours ECE.
National will:
• Remove the six-hours-a-day limit.
• Include play centres and kohanga reo in 20 Hours ECE.
• Provide 20 Hours ECE to five-year-olds.
• Investigate more frequent payment methods.
We will also improve staff ratios, reduce bureaucracy and regulations, and boost participation rates.
To combat teacher shortages, we plan to promote working while training, allow qualified English-speaking foreign teachers to qualify after an intensive six-week programme, and allow Montessori, Steiner, and play centre qualifications to count towards a degree.
Staff ratios for under two-year-olds are important. We believe the current 1:5 ratio is too high. We do not think one staff member will always be enough to ensure all five infants can be guaranteed the high level of attention they may need. Over time, we will reduce that ratio to 1:4.
We will also ensure that, after 2012, sessions for the under-twos in teacher-led early childhood centres are staffed by at least 50% qualified teachers.
Our plan for early childhood care and education backs parents. It recognises that most parents will make the right decisions for their children, and it gives them the flexibility to do that.
As a parent with a young family I’m excited about this policy announcement – we will keep on rolling out policies for the future, while Helen Clark tries to hold together a minority Government that is looking more like a sinking ship every day.