8th March 2011
For Immediate Release

Moves towards Supermarket-style Early Childhood Education

Moves to allow dramatic increases in the size of early childhood
services could lead to supermarket-style early childhood education,
according to the education sector union, NZEI Te Riu Roa.

The government is dropping the requirement for early childhood centres
with more than 50 children to have more than one licence, which could
push up the maximum centre size from 50 to 150 child places.

NZEI National Executive member Hayley Whitaker says that is an
unmanageable number which will compromise the quality of children’s care
and learning.

“All the evidence shows that small group size is critical to a child’s
sense of belonging. Quality early childhood takes place in a warm
caring environment where teachers know children and their families well,
not in large impersonal, institutions,” she says.

“Fifty children is already a large number for a licence and expanding
that to 150 just doesn’t make sense. Having services with large numbers
of children goes against the basic principles of good quality early
childhood education. Economies of scale and early childhood education
are just not a good fit.”

The move also comes on top of a long list of measures that the
government has taken to erode good quality early childhood education.

“We’ve seen funding cut to more than 2,000 services, the target for
having 100% qualified teachers has been abandoned, professional
development for early childhood teachers has been cut and support for
teachers in training and new graduates has been reduced,” says Ms
Whitaker.

“Children deserve the best start in life that they can get and it’s a
shame the government seems intent on chipping away at the value of
that.”

ends

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