EXCERPTS:
The Early Childhood Council has hailed the Government's pre-Budget announcement it would be spending an additional $80 million over four years to secure access to early childhood education for the children of beneficiaries.
CEO Peter Reynolds said the package, which included up to $6 an hour for children to attend an early childhood education service, was likely to have 'life-changing consequences for large numbers of children'.
Mr Reynolds said the package would target some of New Zealand's most needy children, many of whom did not currently attend a childcare centre, 'children who, without access to early childhood education, might arrive at school entirely unprepared to learn'.
Research suggested the investment would impact today's children for the duration of their lives, Mr Reynolds said.
Studies had shown, for example, that low-income children who attended high quality childcare were more likely, later in life, to acquire higher education, and be in a high-skilled job, he said.
They earned more money than their peers who did not receive high-quality early childhood education. And they were less likely to drop out of high school, be in special education, be arrested as a juvenile, or be repeat offenders as adults.
Mr Reynolds said his principle concern about the Government's determination to target early childhood education at the most needy of children was that further money for this might be taken from existing early childhood services in a manner that would reduce the quality of education and care.
It was not just any early childhood education that delivered benefits to children, he said. High quality was the key to everything.
The additional $80 million was, however, new spending for early childhood education, and would provide 'huge benefits for a lot of children for the duration of their lives'.
The Early Childhood Council is the largest representative body of licensed early childhood centres in New Zealand. It has more than 1100 member centres, 31% of which are community-owned and 69% of which are commercially owned. Its members employ more than 7,000 staff, and care for tens of thousands of children.
-reprinted from Voxy.co.nz