Staff shortages threaten kindies

By AMANDA SPRATT

A Coromandel town facing the loss of its only licensed all-day childcare centre is a sign of worse to come, says the Early Childhood Council.

The Whenuakite Country Kids centre in Whitianga is just one example of the "chronic" shortage of qualified staff hitting the central North Island hard, says the council chief executive, Sue Thorne. More centres would close unless the Government took action.

The shortage was particularly severe in Auckland, where the under-five-year-old population was growing.

The online Education Gazette shows about 135 vacancies in childcare centres, about 115 in the North Island, including almost 60 in Auckland alone. Most require qualified teachers.

Mrs Thorne estimated 800 new teachers with diplomas in early childhood education would be needed over the next 14 months to alleviate the city's crisis, a prospect she saw as "extremely unlikely". There were about 1700 centres nationwide, with about 750 in Auckland, she said.

"It's like a pack of dominoes ... What actually worries me the most is that it's the worst thing we could be doing for the children."

She was fielding calls every week from centre owners contemplating selling, and warned centres might soon be forced to charge parents more or compromise on quality so they could offer better wages to attract staff.

Worst affected would be families in low socio-economic areas - those that benefited most from early childhood education programmes, she said.

At Whenuakite Country Kids, relieving head teacher Trish Robbins said a teacher with a diploma in early childhood education was required to be on duty whenever children were there. She was the only full-time one left.

The community-based centre has advertised unsuccessfully for a new teacher since June. It had even looked overseas, but found the process of getting qualifications recognised too complicated.

With Mrs Robbins leaving in three months on maternity leave, the centre faced closure just 18 months after it opened. She said kindergartens in the Whitianga area were already stretched, and the closest all-day licensed alternative was more than an hour's drive away.

Mrs Thorne said the crisis resulted from "well-intentioned" policy changes, part of the Government's long-term plan to improve the quality of early childhood education.

In 2000 the Government required all supervisors to have a diploma or bachelor in early childhood education by 2005. Staff who had gained their licences through a points system have had to retrain.