'Education and care' centres dominate early childhood sector

'Education and care' early childhood centres have continued their climb in popularity, new figures show.

'Education and care' centres are defined as all early childhood education centres that do not fall under an umbrella grouping – such as kindergarten, playschool, kohanga reo and so on.

Recent government figures show education and care centres continue to climb in popularity while other types of centres become less popular.

Source: Ministry of Education - Education Counts

The Early Childhood Council (ECC) represents centres with more than half the 93,000 enrolments in the ‘education and care’ sector. ECC chief executive Sue Thorne said the sector’s growth had come despite a challenging regulatory environment and was testimony to the quality these centres provided.

"Our sector faces constantly the challenge of getting the balance right between regulation and flexibility. There must of course be regulation for general standards. The question is: how much further should government go?

"The centres we represent have, for example, found themselves trapped between contradictory government requirements.

"On the one hand was the pressure to expand provision to meet demand created by the introduction of free early childhood education for three and four year olds.

"On the other, the limitations on teacher supply [were] exacerbated by the rule that centres had to have 50 percent of their teachers qualified and registered by the 31st of December, which thankfully has now been relaxed.

"The education and care sector has been very good at adapting to rapid social change. It is we who have provided much of the diversity of care required in an increasingly multi-cultural society.

"And it is we who have provided the bulk of tailor-made, all-day childcare that has allowed women to enter the workforce in greater numbers."

Mrs Thorne said this rapid adaptation to rapid social change was the key reason education and care centres had come to dominate early childhood education in New Zealand.

"It is this history that makes us especially watchful when it comes to the possibility that over-regulation might create 'sameness' throughout our sector, might prevent us from adapting rapidly to future social change."