23 March 2017
Green MP supporting NZ’s youngest citizens
What: Green MP Catherine Delahunty will be speaking at a campaign rally and signing a pledge to restore quality and
funding to early childhood education
Where: Parliament forecourt
Who: NZEI Te Riu Roa's Every Child is Worth it campaign will be presenting hundreds of children’s “I’m worth it”
messages to MPs
When: Today, Thursday March 23, 1PM
“Early childhood education (ECE) is relied upon by many families, and those families should be able to trust that their
kids are being properly educated and looked after,” Green Party education spokesperson Catherine Delahunty said today.
“The Green Party supports our youngest citizens receiving a high-quality early childhood education, and we are committed
to restoring funding to make that happen.
“Unfortunately everything this Government has done has driven down the quality of ECE, at the same time as it has been
forcing more and more children to participate.
“By pushing participation rates at any cost, the Government is knowingly putting very young children at risk.
“The Education Ministry, the Education Review Office, the chief education science advisor and advisory groups have all
told the Minister there are serious quality issues with some early childhood education services.
“This Government scrapped the requirement for all teachers in the sector to be qualified, it has encouraged the
proliferation of low quality ECE, scrapped a review of the home based sector following serious concerns, and threatened
to cut families’ benefits if they don’t enrol their children in ECE,” Ms Delahunty said.
ends