Cost of kindies gets steeper
Parents with children in kindergarten could face a price hike of up to $700 a year under a raft of new changes being made in Auckland.
The new plan means the centres part of the Auckland Kindergarten Association (AKA) will operate for seven hours a day instead of the current six and will be open all year round apart from the Christmas and New Year period.
A group of concerned mothers have been told their fees will go up regardless whether their children attend for the full year and for the extended hours or not.
Starting in South Auckland, these changes will be implemented across the association’s 107 kindergartens in the region.
Explaining the financial strain that it will cause, the mums say they’re left with no choice but to cut down on other expenses.
Melanie and Andy Jones cur- rently send their children to the local Mangere Bridge Kindergarten for free but under the new scheme would be paying up to $735 a year per child.
The Jones’ say that extending kindy hours takes away an option for parents who would like to send their children for fewer hours.
‘‘To go to school it costs about $160 a year, but [under the new changes] to go to kindy it’s going to cost you $700 a year,’’ Melanie says.
She takes her child to kindergarten three days a week and their local Mangere Bridge Kindergarten does not provide a halfday option.
However for those families who attend kindergartens which offer half-day options, the changes will not affect them.
Melanie is unsure how the changes will benefit homes where both parents are employed fulltime.
‘‘The [proposed] day goes from 8.30am to 3.30pm and if you worked full-time you’d still need to find daycare from 3.30pm to whatever time you get home. I don’t understand how that’s better for working parents.’’
Wendy Marshall says she chose a kindergarten for her son because of term holidays and the shorter days and becauses it provides a good structure for their child’s learning needs.
‘‘We get charged $20 a week ... under the new scheme, we’ll be charged $40 a week,’’ she says.
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