We’re calling for this year’s Budget to improve certainty, equity, opportunity and quality in ECE.
From 14 May, across a number of weeks the Government will be announcing the content of its 2020 Budget. The Budget is an opportunity to invest in what matters - and we know that investing in ECE brings huge benefits for people, for their health and wellbeing, and for the economy.
That’s why we’re calling on this year’s Budget to improve certainty, equity, opportunity and quality in early childhood education.
Before the lockdown, 93% of children in Aotearoa New Zealand regularly attended an early childhood education centre. Even more so in these uncertain times, our tamariki and their whānau will need access to quality early childhood education as we recover from COVID-19.
Let’s call on our decision makers together and remind them why ECE is a Budget priority.
Here’s some ways you can connect with your local mps ahead of Budget 2020
Pick up the phone and call their electorate or community office
Send them an email
Comment on their Facebook page and posts
Get creative - record a video, or (virtually!) get together with your friends and plan an innovative way to get the message across!
And be sure to read on below for some more ideas you could share of what certainty, equity, opportunity and quality could look like in the Budget!
What does certainty, equity, opportunity and quality really look like?
Certainty
Children and their families need to know that their ECE centre is open, and that the teachers and other staff they know are still there and can support them and their learning. If New Zealand is to get back to work, working parents will need childcare and ECE staff need ongoing employment.
This means:
Maintaining Ministry of Education funding to ECE services based on March 1 occupancy at least until December 31, 2020.
Ensuring there’s funding to support day relievers - who are essential to keep services running.
Creating financial security for services will reduce stress in the workplace. Creating certainty for children means they can stay attached to trusted adults, that their learning can continue to flourish, and they can be more resilient.
Opportunity
The past decade has seen a 40% drop in ECE teacher trainees and the growth of a teacher shortage. Right now, we need opportunities to help ECE services stabilise their staffing, and we need new opportunities for people who have lost their jobs due to COVID-19.
We can create these opportunities by providing fees-free ECE teacher training.
Fees-free training would also support the tens of thousands of unqualified (mainly women!) staff already working in ECE to gain qualifications and improve the quality and capability of our teaching workforce.
Equity
We know there’s a crisis in ECE - and it’s driven by a shortage of trained staff, fuelled by a 40% drop in ECE teacher training in the last few years and the fact that ECE teachers currently earn up to 49% less than their school colleagues with the same qualifications, skills and responsibilities.
An immediate increase in funding rates for pay, and a pathway to making pay equitable across the teaching profession, would be the single best way to attract and keep high quality ECE teachers.
It’s also time to address the fact that services in vulnerable communities (that tend to be smaller, community-based, and not-for-profit) and kōhanga reo have been chronically under-funded.
To make this happen we need:
Pay parity for ECE teachers.
An increase in equity funding to kōhanga reo, playcentres and community based ECE services meeting the needs of Māori, Pasifika and our low-income whānau.
Additional funding to support high quality wrap around services for children under 5 who may return with additional stress or trauma post-lockdown.
Additional funding for improving the physical environment of these services so that they can meet COVID-19 health and safety requirements.
Quality
Currently ECE services are only required to employ 50% qualified teachers and the Government’s early learning plan target for 100% is not until 2030. We need to address the issue of quality in ECE quickly, and 2030 isn’t soon enough.
We can improve the quality of ECE by:
Accelerating funding incentives for services to employ 100% qualified teachers - quality ECE is correlated with a qualified workforce.
Immediately restoring the 80-99% and 100% qualified teacher funding bands that were removed by the National Government in 2009, and moving the 100% target to 2025.
Having a high quality teaching workforce will ensure high quality learning for children, raise the status of the teaching profession, and create career pathways for our mostly female workforce.