Parents fight for traditional kindies

Parents from two Rotorua kindergartens are fighting to keep their pre-school as traditional as possible.

Out of the Central North Island Kindergarten Association's 50 kindergartens, 33 had replaced their traditional two sessions a day to one six hour session since 1998.

In Rotorua, there were only three that hadn't changed to one session but a decision about whether they would, was likely to be made this week. They were Ngongotaha, Rotorua East and Fordlands kindergartens and were being consulted over the proposed change because of dropping rolls.

In a last-ditch effort to save Ngongotaha and Rotorua East kindergartens from the change, parents have petitioned against the move and handed it to the general manager of the Central North Island Kindergarten Association Jan Ballantyne.

One mum from Ngongotaha kindergarten who organised her pre-school's petition and didn't want to be named, said about 40 names were listed on her petition. She said the names were parents of about 30 children at the kindergarten and members of the wider community who could be effected by the change.

She said parents were concerned about the way they were told about the change about three weeks ago and felt they had no say in the matter.

She also believed roll numbers could increase if more people knew that they were the only kindergartens in the city that offered the traditional two sessions a day.

Mrs Ballantyne said the reason for the proposed change was the reducing roll numbers in all kindergartens.

She said to continue operating as they do they needed a full roll of 45 in the mornings and 42 in the afternoons.

However, Ngongotaha has an average of 40 children in the morning and 33 in the afternoon.

Mrs Ballantyne said there were a number of reasons behind the dropping rolls with the main one being social changes and partly the Government's 20 hours free scheme, which makes it cheaper for parents of 3 to 4-year-olds to place children in childcare.

Mrs Ballantyne said the main reason was that parents were either choosing to go back to work full or part-time or had to go back to work because of rising mortgage interest rates and other household bills.

However, while she said the majority of kindergartens and parents were supportive of the change, there was some heavy opposition by parents at kindergartens currently being consulted over the proposed change.

She said it seemed the Fordlands community were supportive of the kindergarten changing to one six-hour session but Ngongotaha and Rotorua East were not as keen.

Ngongotaha Kindergarten Mum Minka Phillips sends her 4-year-old daughter Molly and 3-year-old son Ashe to Ngongotaha Kindergarten to the morning or afternoon sessions and doesn't like the idea of a six-hour session for her children.

Although the working mother said she can understand the benefits for a 4-year-old to spend a full-day at kindergarten preparing them for a school day, she believed six hours for three-year-old was too long.

However, she knew everyone could not be satisfied with a decision.

Mrs Phillips said there wasn't a consultation process asking parents what they thought but told what was going to happen.

"If it works for everyone else, then that's how it should be," Mrs Phillips said.