NZ Kindergartens: A new agenda welcomed

A new agenda welcomed

“We welcome the government’s agenda for education” said Clare Wells, Chief Executive NZ Kindergartens. “We need to be ambitious for children. Refocusing our energies to ensure everyone has access to high quality education regardless of their age, sets us on a new path.”

“Children don’t start learning when they get to school – they continue their learning, deepening and extending their knowledge, understanding and experience of their world. Our education system and policy settings must reflect that” Clare Wells said.

“We look forward to working across the sector and community to create a vision for education, and our kindergarten communities will be keen to be part of designing a strategic plan for early childhood education (ECE) to realise that vision for our youngest learners” said Clare Wells.

“It’s time we had a coherent, future-focused workforce strategy across the system and across the teaching profession and an action plan for learning support to improve access to services for children and young people” said Clare Wells. “Children in ECE go on to school and we have to do better to identify and support children needing additional help earlier to increase their learning success.”

“We look forward to early childhood education (ECE) being integral to the development, planning and implementation of the agenda from the outset, rather than being an ‘add on’ which has often been our experience in the past. “Focusing on schools then on ECE or retro-fitting policy designed for school-age children to fit ECE, simply doesn’t work.”

“We know the critical factors that make a positive difference for children’s learning in their first few years and the impact that has on their learning success through their schooling years” Clare Wells said. “We’ll bring that knowledge and expertise to the table.”

ENDS

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