Changes ‘put quality, safety at risk’
ifications and feels like undervaluing teachers and children.”
Dr Sarah Alexander, chief adviser at the Office of the Early Childhood Education, shared White’s concerns around teacher safety, enabling inexperienced teachers to be left in charge. for
“Anything can happen in a centre and the teacher might only have a few months [of experience], weeks or no more than a year ... this change was about making it safer for staff and helping to ensure children’s safety.”
Maintaining the status quo also
“supports
keeping the wage bill low,” Alexander said.
If the change had occurred, centres would have been obliged to retain staff as they get experienced, rather than letting them go in favour of cheaper labour, which Alexander said happens now.
Nikki Parsons, general manager at Te Rito Maioha-Early Childhood NZ, an industry group that trains early childhood teachers and supports centres, was more welcoming of the changes but said the trick would be ensuring quality was maintained while cutting red tape.
Parsons said the intent of changes that were signalled by Labour initially were good but their implementation “wasn’t great”.
“Having a fully qualified registered staff member in an ideal world is perfect, but we have massive teaching shortages at the moment, particularly in those rural and isolated communities.”
Parsons believed reducing legislative requirements could help to free up existing staff.
“We have a lot of fully qualified staff at the moment doing lots of compliance things, so they're not able to spend time on the floor with tamariki. And that’s ultimately the most important thing.”
The changes were praised by the Early Childhood Council’s chief executive, Simon Laube, who said layers of regulation over the years had stifled innovation and created barriers and hidden costs.
In late 2023, a survey by the council showed centres would need to restrict hours they opened or even close altogether to meet the regulation.