1,000 signatures reached
To: Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and the Aotearoa / New Zealand Government
Back quality early childhood education for all tamariki!
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To Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and the Aotearoa / New Zealand Government: Stop undermining decades of progress for teachers, children and their families and start backing quality early childhood education for all tamariki (children).
Our youngest learners deserve the best.
Children’s early years are the most important – for their learning and wellbeing, and outcomes for the rest of their lives. The research backs this up: the benefits of public investment in high-quality early childhood education far outweigh the costs.
Yet, right now, the Government is making changes that undermine qualified teacher requirements, scrap curriculum standards that ensure quality teaching, remove requirements to honour Te Tiriti o Waitangi, remove important safety regulations for tamariki, and more.
It’s teachers' qualifications, professionalism, and expertise that make the difference for tamariki. But teachers can only do their best when they’re respected, valued, and supported with teacher-to-child ratios and conditions which create quality learning.
The Government has already scrapped early childhood teachers’ pay equity claim, removed pay parity for all new, relieving, and fixed-term teachers, paving the way for further reductions in teacher pay so greater profit can be made from children’s education.
We are now at a critical point where the changes that are being pushed through will have serious long-term impacts on tamariki, whānau, and early childhood kaiako.
Join us by adding your name to the list of signatories calling on the Government of Aotearoa / New Zealand to:
- Ko te tamaiti te pūtake – put the child at the heart of any decisions about early childhood education. Listen to early childhood educators about what’s needed so that we put children’s needs first.
- Honour Te Tiriti o Waitangi in education. Education needs to include all tamariki and rightfully acknowledge Māori as tangata whenua. Retain all commitments and references to Te Tiriti o Waitangi.
- Honour and uphold Te Whāriki, our world-leading curriculum, and the standards which support its use.
- Provide culturally responsive education. Ensure the language, culture, and identity of all tamariki is respected and celebrated. Ensure kaupapa Māori education delivered through Kohānga Reo and Puna Reo is sustained, culturally embedded environments and practices are upheld, and kamaihi working in these settings are valued.
- Respect regulations that lead to quality education. This means not watering downqualified teacher requirements, legislating for safe ratios of teachers to children, increasing funding and access to learning support to create the conditions to make safe, high-quality teaching and learning possible.
- Ensure pay parity and conditions for staff. Value early childhood teachers by paying them at pay parity rates – the same as their primary and secondary colleagues. Make make sure we have fully qualified teachers for our youngest learners.
- Make decisions using evidence-based practice. Make sure the experts – workforce, early childhood academics and researchers, children’s organisations, iwi, hapu, and whānau – are at the table and fully consulted ahead of any changes.
Why is this important?
Early education has a huge an effect on children's life outcomes.
Right now, the Government is progressively removing important regulations and teachers' rights that ensure quality early childhood education for tamariki.
Right now, the Government is progressively removing important regulations and teachers' rights that ensure quality early childhood education for tamariki.