“Kindergartens are great, all early learning providers are, but even with the pay parity to match kindergartens, we’re still about $1.70 less in funding than what kindergartens get.”
The owner said the difference in funding made it more difficult for some early ECE centres to meet regulations.
“We’re viewed as separate from kindergartens but we have the same rules, same regulations, same procedures for reviewing by ERO [Education Review Office] and same qualifications, we just get treated differently with funding.”
Kindergarten is part-time education for children aged 2 to 5 that is mostly government-funded and has 100 per cent qualified and certificated ECE teachers, with more funding support from the Ministry of Education.
Early childhood education centres are typically privately owned and teachers do not have to be qualified, but centres have between 50 and 80 per cent qualified teachers.
Recent Education Review Office reports found 41 per cent of early childhood centres reviewed nationwide were non-compliant with the early learning regulations.
“New Zealand’s early learning regulations have become a punishment regime, without support and recognition for centres that strive to exceed minimum standards,” a statement from the Early Childhood Council (ECC) said.
Current regulations control premises, sleep spaces, health and safety, food, drink, governance and management.
“Non-compliance rates have become so high that we have to ask if the regulatory regime is still working,” ECC chief executive Simon Laube said.
“Unwitting parents relying on non-compliance reports or licence notifications could easily withdraw their child from a good centre and take them to one that’s worse.”
Laube said unless the Ministry of Education moved away from just policing minimum standards and started rewarding centres that excelled, every interaction between the regulator and centres would be high-stakes and opportunities for early intervention and improvement would be lost.
“We need a regulatory regime that’s efficient to administer, not the regulation industry we have today,” Laube said.
“Clear regulatory principles should be agreed first with early learning sector leadership input, not just the Government. Expertise from areas like child health, where we can also make gains, should be part of the discussion.”
ERO is the New Zealand Government’s external evaluation agency for education providers, including early childhood education centres.
Its chief review officer Nicholas Pole said ERO was taking a hard line with services to meet all legislative obligations and raise the bar.
The most common areas of non-compliance were related to the health and safety practices standard, particularly those criteria that posed a significant risk to children’s safety and wellbeing, Pole said.
Those were securing heavy furniture, fixtures and equipment, having a written emergency plan, supplies and evacuation procedures, carrying out necessary emergency drills, sleep monitoring, daily hazard checks and analysing accident/incident records to identify hazards and to eliminate, isolate and minimise hazards, excursion management, administration of medicine and safety checking of staff.
He said the standards were intended to keep children safe.
“ERO would expect all services that care for children to consistently meet these standards,” Pole said.
“Quality early childhood education experiences for our youngest learners’ development, particularly from birth to 3-year-olds, are important and ERO wants every early childhood service to provide great quality early learning experiences in a safe environment.”
Whānau Manaaki Kindergarten Association operates 12 kindergartens in Whanganui.
Its chief operating officer Amy Weightman said Whānau Manaaki supported the roles the ministry and ERO had in supporting robust regulations.
She said it encouraged a culture of good evaluative practice and seeking excellent teaching and learning practices.
