Country Kids

Crowd protests funding cuts

The Nelson Mail reports on the peaceful protest held in Nelson on Saturday 6th November.

Early childhood educators “should not be expected to run cake stalls” to keep their centres functioning, Nelson father Andy Williams says.

“The mission of these teachers is to bring these kids up so they’re ready to go to school,” he said as a member of the 250-strong crowd who attended Saturday’s rally in Nelson to protest funding cuts to the early childhood education sector.

The Nelson Kindergarten Association and the primary teachers union (NZEI) organised the protest to provide an opportunity for people to support the campaign against cuts which came after this year’s Budget.

NZEI early childhood regional representative Virginia Stark said parents and teachers in the Nelson region were concerned the cuts would undermine the importance of early childhood education by penalising centres which have high ratios of qualified teachers. The almost festive protest, marked by many people dressed in green and carrying green balloons, and Nelson band Free Wheelin’ singing cherry tunes in the warm spring sunshine, carried an undercurrent of concern and anger among educators and parents.

“I trained as a qualified teacher because children deserve that,” said Rose Thompson of Nelson’s Health Kids pre-school.

She said the funding cuts would mean increased fees for families, but in the end those most penalised would be young children. “It’s the children who will dip out in the end. This just blows me away.

“The years up to three and five are the most critical in a child’s life. If we don’t do education right in the beginning, it shows at the other end,” Ms Thompson said.

The Government has cut nearly $300 million from its budget by removing the top two funding rates for early childhood centres with more than 80 per cent fully qualified teachers.

In Nelson that meant $750,000 was cut from kindergartens, not including other providers, said Nelson Kindergarten Association chief executive Wendy Logan.

She said many centres planned to pass on the cost to parents, or make staff redundant.

Nelson mother Kelly Win, who has one pre-schooler and a four-month-old, was concerned about the likelihood of having to pay for early childhood education, which would be difficult unless she was working.

“We don’t get a lot of financial help for our family, and I don’t want my second child’s development compromised. At the moment I don’t feel the pressure to work,” she said.

Nelson Kindergarten Association chairwoman Janice Bromell, who was among a list of speakers who addressed the crowd gathered at the Church Steps, said the Government talked about cost, but investment in early childhood education was an investment and not a cost.

“If we want our children to reach their maximum potential, every dollar we invest returns a 13-fold benefit,” Ms Bromell said.

She said part of an early childhood teacher’s role was to educate families as well as children.

“We can only do this if teachers have that skill, and if they are qualified.”