he Office of ECE's Sarah Alexander says the stats are "totally shocking". (Source: Breakfast)
SHARE ME
There has been a 39.6% increase in the number of early childhood education services (ECEs) on provisional licences, according to the Office of Early Childhood Education.
A total of 282 ECEs were on provisional licences in 2023, compared to 202 in 2022.
Speaking to Breakfast this morning, the office's Sarah Alexander called the numbers "totally shocking".
"Early childhood services should be fantastic places for children to be in — children should be happy; well cared for; well educated; parents delighted with the quality provided. Instead, we're seeing the opposite."
She explained an ECE would have its licence downgraded because it hadn't met minimum standards. This could include health and safety standards, curriculum, or management.
ADVERTISEMENT
"The Ministry of Education does not make the decision to take licencing action against a service lightly.
"Regulation breaches must be major or serious, are usually multiple, and not able to be resolved quickly or before a change of licence is issued following visits to the service and communications with the service provider and or manager," the office's website says.
Alexander said examples of standards failing to be met would be children escaping from ECEs unnoticed, poor hygiene, insufficient ratios of children to adults, or issues such as broken fences or unsafe play equipment.
A child playing at an early childhood centre (Source: istock.com)
"The Ministry of Education does not downgrade licences unless it's serious and often, to get a downgrade, there are multiple issues.
"This is an issue, and I'm really surprised that over the space of one year that this has happened," she said.
Alexander said 36 services were cancelled all together last year because they were just "that bad".
ADVERTISEMENT
"We are talking about young children and, really, we need everyone to be complying with these minimum standards and then building their quality from there."
Asked whether the Education Ministry is at fault, Alexander said it is getting better at responding to complaints and incidents. She said it is also a case of the ministry "not knowing what they don't know".
"It really is up to parents, members of the public, and teachers to report when things aren't good — so the ministry knows to investigate."
Ministry of Education operations and integration Hautū (leader) Sean Teddy said: "We can confirm that 212 early childhood licences were reclassified to provisional, or suspended in 2022. This number increased by 88 in 2023, bringing the total to 300."
Teddy pointed out there were around 4400 early childhood services in 2023.
SHARE ME