Drugs blight early learning
A preschooler who pulled a synthetic cannabis bag out of her lunchbox is among a rising number of children affected by drug use at home, according to a new government report.
Early childcare services have expressed concerns to the Ministry of Education about growing drug use within their communities, and said overcrowded homes were impacting the most vulnerable. Poor hygiene – dirty nappies, unwashed clothes, and head lice – and chronic health issues such as respiratory and skin conditions were the most common challenges reported by about 22 of the 25 centres and organisations interviewed.
Twenty said children from disadvantaged backgrounds ‘‘lacked self control and resiliency’’, and about 17 reported increased drug and alcohol abuse, particularly the rise of methamphetamine, as a concern.
The report looked at how services spent equity funding, a version of the school decile funding system used in early childhood education, to decide the most effective way to implement a new $35.5 million funding stream called Targeted Funding for Disadvantage.
Educators approached by Stuff suggested nobody was complaining about extra funding but some questioned the value of having two very similar funding mechanisms for addressing disadvantage. ‘‘I can’t see it’s anything more than tinkering around the edges,’’ kindergarten head teacher Virginia Oakly said.
‘‘You are going into areas that aren’t early childhood core business. This is a much bigger thing that’s not going to be addressed by giving centres more money,’’ Oakly said.
The preschools, daycares and kindergartens interviewed were equally split between Auckland, Hawke’s Bay, Wellington and Canterbury, and all were the equivalent of decile 4 or lower.
The report, published last week, was produced in September and October. Among the stories relayed were instances of trying to take children home, where the parents were drunk, and a child traumatised after his mother was arrested in a drug raid.
One service said the increased use of methamphetamine in its area had drawn some parents into addiction and gang activity.
Another service noted children exposed to domestic violence or excessive drinking ‘‘often looked to teachers to be the stable adults in their lives’’.
‘‘It’s lunchtime, she opens her lunchbox and she’s having a look around and then she pulls out a deal bag for synthetic cannabis and gave it to me,’’ a staff member at that service said.
Overcrowded homes were a problem for children’s development: ‘‘Some families would go home and read a couple of stories before the child goes to bed but if you’ve got another half a dozen adults in the house it just doesn’t happen,’’ an interviewee said.
Oakly, who is also the early childhood education representative for the New Zealand Educational Institute, said the equity funding model was flawed because it was tied to the ‘‘erratic’’ attendance of often transient families.
Equity funding provides between 21 cents and 97 cents per child per hour in extra funding to centres whose children live in low socio-economic communities.
Targeted Funding for Disadvantage, which is additional to equity funding, allocates extra money to centres where more than 20 per cent of enrolled children are from ‘‘disadvantaged backgrounds’’. Disadvantage is defined as a child having spent most of their life as the dependant of a beneficiary.
About $5.2m has been budgeted for the programme this year, and more than $10m has been budgeted for each of the next three years.
More than $3.7m – about $5000 per centre – was handed out in the first funding round in March.
Poor hygiene and chronic health issues were the most common challenges.