History of Early Childhood Education in NZ

By s.savage

  • Parish Work Houses

  • London Foundling homes for infants- 100% mortality rate

  • Kindergartens spread through Germany

  • Dunedin Crech formed

  • First kindergarten opened in Dunedin

  • NZ first foundling home

  • Infant Life protection Act

  • Adoption of children Act

  • Mothering was seen as an occupation of value

  • First Creche in Wellington

  • Professional baby farmer (Mary Ann Guy) convicted of murder

  • Infant mortalities lowest in the world

  • Plunket movement started in Dunedin

  • 60 branches formed with plunket nurses and 6 Karitane hospitals opened

  • Mother Craft Manual "feeding and care of baby"

  • 34 Free kindergartens and 2 charitable creche

  • New Playcentre movement

  • NZ playcentre federation is constitued

  • Recruitment and training of teachers was moved to teachers colleges

  • 92 play centres

  • NZ free kindergarten Association is formed

  • First NZ childcare regulations

  • First married woman accepted into primary and kindergarten training

  • Cultural awreness is accepted in centres and schools

  • All kindergartens staffed with fully trained teachers

  • Plunket philosophy changes

  • Government introduced fee subsidies for parents unable to afford childcare costs

  • National car seat rental programme introduced

  • Government introduces grants to support early childhhod training

  • Department of Social Welfare changed to Department of Education

  • Department of Education replaced by Ministry of Education

  • ECE curriculum acknowledged a bi-cultural nation was under development

  • Period: to

    over 1029 new ECE centres open

  • Impact of budget- fees up, wages down

  • The first NZ curriculum for Early Childhood Te Whariki

  • 10 year strategic plan

  • 20hrs free introduced by Labour government

  • Updated Early childhood regulations released

  • Budget- removes 100% funding rate. Reduction in funding for 80% rate

  • An agenda for Amazing Children report published

    http://www.omepaotearoa.org.nz/assets/EC-Taskforce-Recommendations.pdf

  • need for better investment in Early childhood education

    http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/ED1207/S00028/need-for-better-investment-in-early-childhood-education.htm
    Vulnerable children are at risk of missing out on quality ECE education
    Need better teacher:child ratio

  • 247 complaints were made to MoE about the quality of teaching

    https://www.myece.org.nz/inside-news/169-nz-ece-complaints
    Complaints include children being hurt or injured while at the centre

  • Vulnerable children Act passed

  • ECE funding Handbook updated

  • 2015 budget disappoints

    http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO1505/S00296/budget-2015-cold-comfort-for-early-childhood-education.htm
    No funding increase
    The $75 million extra funding over four years has been allocated to pay for the increased number of children attending ECE for longer hrs
    Want to encourage more children to attend an Early childhood centre

  • Early childhood get better funding

    http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/education/80424056/budget-2016-school-property-and-early-childhood-the-big-winners
    $396.9 million will be spent over the next 4 years in ECE
    14,000 more children will be able to attend an ECE centre

  • Children attending ECE centres are not fully prepared for school

    http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11632287
    Primary school teachers are seeing the increase of children starting school and having limited literacy and numeracy skills, considering a high percentage of students participating in a ECE centre.
    Need more qualified teachers to provide quality learning experiences for children