Tamariki are at risk of missing out on
vital early childhood education and care with worsening
teacher shortages and some services facing closure under
Covid-19 requirements.
Te Rito Maioha Early Childhood
Education chief executive Kathy Wolfe says that in a
December poll of Te Rito Maioha members, 40% of ECE services
had recently lost teachers. In February, this had risen to
60% with reasons including Covid-19 requirements, stress,
high workloads, and low pay compared to kindergarten and
primary teachers.
ECE services were finding it
difficult to replace permanent qualified teachers; the
majority of those were relying heavily on relievers or
unqualified staff. Around quarter of services indicated they
were unsure whether they could remain open if one or more
teachers need to self-isolate under Covid-19 red setting
requirements.
“ECE services are doing their best to
plan and stay open for tamariki, but Covid-19 has added
incredible pressure to a sector already stressed by
prolonged teacher shortages, pay disparity and inequity,”
Kathy Wolfe says.
“We’re very concerned for our
sector as a whole, for some of our individual members, and
especially for tamariki who face further disruption to their
learning experiences during the most formative years of
their lives.
“We’re in real danger of seeing some
centres go under and some of our sector’s most experienced
managers and valuable teachers walk away from the stress of
it.”
Kathy Wolfe says Government could help in the
short-term by recognising early childhood education services
and teachers as critical for all young tamariki – not just
children whose parents are critical workers.
“We
fully stand by our sector partners and colleagues in calling
for Rapid Antigen Tests to be available and funded for early
childhood teachers through the Government’s Close Contact
Exemption Scheme, so that teachers can safely stay at work
instead of self-isolating.
“However, beyond the
immediate need, the critical step is for the Government to
stand by its election promise this Budget and fund ECE
services sufficiently to pay all their qualified teachers on
a par with their equally-qualified kindergarten and primary
school counterparts.
“Without pay parity we will
never address ECE teacher shortages, which are worse now but
existed long before the pandemic arrived. Without pay
parity, we will struggle to attract, train and keep the
qualified and high-quality teachers all young tamariki need
to provide the best-possible start to their
learning.”