Corina Naus, General Manager of Marlborough Kindergarten Association said they were thrilled with the news the
government will restore funding for qualified and registered early childhood teachers to 100%.
The National government reduced the funding to 80 % in 2010 which meant many kindergartens ended up in deficit and had
to use financial reserves.
Corina says the funding is so welcome and will give our local Association much needed financial certainty.
“This is just so exciting for us and has been a long time coming. It’s such good news on the back of what we’ve been
going through with Covid-19 and a great boost and recognition for our staff who have been working so hard during this
time to support our tamariki and our community.”
“It also means we can now start to plan to do some things at our kindergartens which have been deferred because we just
couldn’t afford them.”
Todays’ decision is hugely significant as we have continued to support a 100 % qualified teacher workforce while only
receiving funding at 80 %.
Marlborough Kindergarten Association is a member of New Zealand Kindergartens (NZK) who have been lobbying the
Government to reinstate the funding as it was one of their collation agreement promises. The reinstatement is one of the
key deliverables of the Early Learning Action Plan which NZK took an active role in working with the Ministry of
Education and others across the sector to develop.
“This announcement will mean that our Kindergarten Association will now have a significantly improved financial
position. This gives us certainty for the future, and we can start planning to look at deferred maintenance and
improvements that have been on the back burner due to lack of funds.”
“We are delighted with the announcement and congratulate the government on their decision.”