Cuts will 'dumb down service' | Northland News | Local News in Northland

Government cuts to early childhood education will place extra costs on parents, dumb down the quality of teachers and turn the sector into a babysitting service, critics say.

From February next the year the Government will remove the top two funding bands for centres which have more than 80 per cent of fully qualified staff.

A survey conducted by the Labour Party including 17 Northland providers shows centres in this region would lose an average of $32,505. Fees were likely to increase by between $5 and $40 per week.

Northland Kindergarten Association general manager Richard Storey said the cuts would cost $980,00 - one third of the association's budget. At present the 20 kindergarten's he represented had 100 per cent qualified teachers and received the top level of funding - but that would change next year.

Mr Storey said kindergartens would have to make up the shortfall by fundraising, but parents didn't have the money to "continually put their hands in their pockets."

He said studies showed the first five years were the most important in a child's life and every dollar spent on early childhood education saved up to $16 on remedial work further down the track.

"If we dumb it down it'll make a mockery of research and future planning. We believe every child has the right to fully qualified and registered teachers."

Mr Storey said a drive from parents had seen more focus placed on preparing preschoolers for school, and reducing the quality of teachers went against that.

Owner and teacher of Smart Start preschool Moira McKay said she has four qualified staff but next year will only be able to afford three. The cuts would cost her business $65,000 a year and an extra $1 per child per hour.

"The Government say it's okay to have someone unqualified because they could be a nice person or someone's granny, but it devalues people like myself who've gone out and spent time with no income to get qualified."

She said qualified teachers were able to observe children and pick things up which weren't right. Ms McKay also claimed the Government's national standards would pile even more pressure on early childhood education providers.

"Because schools will be marked on whether they reach the standards they will expect a higher level of knowledge from kids which will mean higher expectations from parents, yet centres won't have all the qualified staff they need."

Whangarei's Labour party candidate Pat Newman said the early childhood sector was on the way to becoming a fully qualified professional service but would now become a "babysitting service."

New Zealand Educational Institute Vice President Judith Nowotarski said the Government should stop treating early childhood education as a cost rather than an investment, because the people paying the cost were children and their families.