Introduction

We are a collective of community-based, not-for-profit early childhood education (ECE) service providers operating 260 licensed services across the country catering for over 12,000 tamariki and whānau each day. We employ over 1,500 qualified and certificated teachers in permanent teacher, head teacher and senior teacher/professional leader roles as well as in relieving positions. We have lease arrangements with the Ministry of Education and other crown agencies, local authorities and churches, for land and buildings or both. The majority of our arrangements are with the Ministry of Education as many of our services alongside playcentres, ngā kohanga reo, and community-based education and care services including Pasifika services, are on school sites.

We are deeply concerned about the rushed nature and timing of the bill. It follows a series of amendments to legislation over the past 12 months or more, changing significant parts of the principal act and subsequent regulation. These too have been rushed, undermining our right to authentically engage in the democratic process. Collectively, the government’s changes undermine Te Tiriti o Waitangi, erode public education, weaken regulation and accountability, politicise education and teaching, and undermine the teaching profession.

We were appalled the government removed the requirement for school boards of trustees to give effect to Te Tiriti o Waitangi. Despite the change, schools and kura continue to uphold Te Tiriti and we stand with them. We commend the leadership and commitment to uphold principles to enable and support culturally responsive education in Aotearoa.

In early childhood education, in the past year, the government revised the purpose of ECE regulation from primarily being in the interests of tamariki to being in the interests of ECE service and business owners. Effectively the changes:

• reduce quality provision and further undermine minimum standards;
• undermine the confidence of parents, whānau and the community in our ECE provision;
• ignore research evidence related to teaching and learning to limit costs to providers;
• introduce a narrow regime of compliance as the focus of service provision;
• shift early childhood education out of education;
• position ECE as primarily a function of the labour market.

 

We present these two examples to illustrate the impact of government legislative change. Based on our experiences to date, and our understanding of the government’s agenda for the direction of education in Aotearoa, we are deeply concerned about the purpose and content of this bill.

We urge the committee to reject the amendments regarding shifting functions from the Teaching Council to the Ministry of Education and establishing the Director of Regulation role within the Education Review Office.

Further we urge caution regarding the establishment of the education property agency. We recommend the committee seek clarity around its primary purpose, obligations to the public, powers and functions, and recommend public, community-based provision of ECE and schools remain the priority for the agency when determining the use of public property.