The ECE changes will be fully implemented by mid-2026. Photo: RNZ / Marika Khabazi
Some early childhood teachers are warning an upcoming overhaul of the ECE sector will make centres unsafe and lower teaching standards
In December last year, a regulatory review of early childhood education recommended 15 changes to the current system.
Regulation Minister David Seymour has confirmed these will be fully implemented by mid-2026.
But some teachers told First Up they believed these changes will do more harm than good.
Barbara Reneti was the Centre Manager of Mini Miracles Educare in Henderson, West Auckland.
"Our centre is licensed for 90 children. We have four rooms, each room has two qualified teachers - but our babies are fortunate that they have three in their room.
"Our day is about interacting with them, learning with them as well as qualified teachers," she said
Four children were sitting around a table with a teacher learning to write the letter A.
"We empower them not to see just the letter, but we also see that it can be shaped anyway and that we're seeing that the shape of an A doesn't have to be up, down, across. It can be oval, it can go round and across," Reneti said.
On another table, a group was building houses using mobilo and Lego pieces.
Reneti told First Up the children were learning the blocks could be used in different ways.
"It all depends on what they're looking at and what they're trying to build. And we're not forcing them today, 'ok a house goes straight up' because no house looks the same," she said.
Reneti had been working in early childhood for more than two decades, but she said it had taken years for teachers like her to be recognised as qualified professionals.
"Initially when early childhood education came out, we weren't seen as a professional entity. We were seen as glorified nannies because they didn't see us as a profession at the time," she said.
"As we've progressed, we've done the work we've done the studies behind us so that we can get the recognition that we are professionals."
In December 2024, a regulatory review of early childhood education recommended 15 changes to the sector.
In April, Regulations Minister David Seymour confirmed these changes will be rolled out over the next year and will be fully implemented by mid-2026.
One of those changes - recommendation 10 - allowed " flexibility" in early childhood qualifications.
However, Reneti said this will undermine the role of teachers with degrees.
"It kind of diminishes our degree and it makes it obsolete," she said.
"We will become what they had already termed us, as glorified babysitters. Our qualification is not worth the paper it's written on.
"We studied that just like primary school teachers did. We did our three years. And we are required every three years to upgrade our skills."
She was concerned that without enough qualified teachers, centres will become more accident-prone because untrained staff won't understand how to manage risks.
"They don't know to scan and they're like 'scanning for what?' And we're saying 'scanning for the possibility of an accident happening'," she said.
"They don't know to position themselves so that they can see, but still focus on moving around with our children and seeing the different areas.
"Accidents will increase, it will go through the roof."
Reneti believed once the changes goes through childcare centres will become crowded and chaotic.
"My worst fear is that this will become chaotic. There will be no structure, there will be no format, there will be nothing that is going to help stimulate and guide our children.
"[It's] going to be become a mosh pit because they're going to have so many children coming in, but not enough qualified teachers that are going to help them learn."
However, in a statement, Seymour said the Ministry of Education will be working on the recommendation in September.
"There has been a lot of speculation about recommendation 10 - to allow greater flexibility in workforce qualifications. There is some anxiety that somehow the level of qualification or skill of teachers in the ECE sector will be reduced. That is not the case," Seymour said.
"The Ministry of Education will be undertaking further work to best give effect to recommendation 10 in September. To achieve the best outcomes this work will include engaging with the service providers, parents, and the teaching workforce."
Regulation Minister David Seymour. Photo: RNZ / Calvin Samuel
But that was of little comfort to Megan White, who manages a community-based childhood centre in Wellington
She was also the early childhood representative for the New Zealand Educational Institute Te Riu Roa.
White told First Up said it was privately-owned centres that will benefit most from the flexibility in workforce recommendation.
"Generally speaking, they don't have as many qualified teachers, which means their cost is significantly lower," White said.
"So, for them this regulation review, they're probably happier that because it means they have to have even less qualified teachers, which means more money for them."
Currently, centres with 100 percent qualified teachers are eligible for government funding.
Under the new guidelines, funding will no longer be linked to the number of certificated teachers.
White said her centre is already running at a loss.
"You know when they [teachers] are qualified, each year they go up the ladder, but there's no increased funding for that. So, we're essentially running at a loss to be able to pay them the the increased steps that they are entitled to," she said.
She said if recommendation 10 was implemented, not only would community-based centres - like hers - potentially lose government funding, but it will also drive them out of business.
"If a big corporate one opened right next door to where our community based centre was and they're offering like cheaper fees and you know that sort of thing. Then our centre would they they wouldn't survive because we can't offer any of those things because we're not making a profit."
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