There are five main factors that set kindergartens apart from other forms of childcare, and the Heretaunga Kindergarten Association (HKA) should be thinking carefully about how it's approaching the challenges it faces to maintain its identity and secure its future, says ChildForum chief executive Sarah Alexander.
Involved in the early childhood sector for many years, including being a kindergarten head teacher, Dr Alexander said that while the HKA was stuck between a rock and a hard place in its efforts to secure its member kindergartens' future, the crossroads it faces could be an opportunity to do things differently, and take a positive stance rather than a reactive, competitive one.
"Now is the time, when it's considering redundancies and hours of attendance, to say do we see kindergartens as a business, or do we hold onto what makes kindergartens kindergartens."
She said the approach the association was taking was playing into the hands of the Government and risking kindergartens' current position that was covered by the State Sector Act.
Under this act a legally free kindergarten was defined as an early childcare service whose licence permitted no child to attend for more than four hours a day, and currently the government was still responsible under the act to fund wage increases.