Flawed Tertiary Policy Threatens Early Childhood Sector
Nowhere more are the flaws in the Government's Tertiary Policy exposed than in the early childhood sector. The majority
of early childhood teachers graduate from private tertiary institutions, with the three largest suppliers of early
childhood teachers all being private providers. There is an acute shortage of early childhood teachers due, in part, to
the inaction of successive governments over many years to fund the sector adequately to ensure the recruitment and
retention of sufficient staff, but more recently this Government's 'flip-flopping' of the rules around early childhood
qualifications which has required thousands of existing early childhood teachers to retrain if they wish to keep their
jobs. Minister Mallard (Minister Responsible for Early Childhood Education), in an attempt to 'fix' the problem he has
created, has introduced a number of ineffective strategies to boost the number of early childhood teachers. Meanwhile in
another room in the Beehive his colleague, Minister Maharey (Minister Responsible for Tertiary Education) has cut
funding and capped enrolments at the 2001 level to the very institutions
that train early childhood teachers, private tertiary institutions. This Government's interference in early childhood
qualifications coupled
with their dogmatic opposition to private tertiary institutions has quite literally left no one holding the baby.
Contact Sue Thorne, Chief Executive, Early Childhood Council 09 449 1327 mobile 027 4483 215