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A Story of Changing State Priorities: Early Childhood Care and Education Policies in Aotearoa New Zealand

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Early Childhood Education Policies in Asia Pacific

Part of the book series: Education in the Asia-Pacific Region: Issues, Concerns and Prospects ((EDAP,volume 35))

Abstract

During the last 30 years, the early childhood care and education (ECCE) system in Aotearoa New Zealand has undergone a significant change, starting with centralising ECCE policy-making and administration into the Ministry of Education (MoE) in 1986. The influential Before Five (Department of Education 1988b) policies, with a ‘children’s rights’ framework, aimed to ensure equitable access to affordable and good-quality ECCE for young children. In 1996, the internationally acclaimed values-based, bicultural ECCE curriculum framework, Te Whāriki (Ministry of Education 1996), which was developed in partnership with the indigenous Māori people, was released. Market-driven policy approaches underpin the government’s mostly hands-off approach to the supply and management of early childhood education services (ECES). Analysis of recent Ministry of Education data indicates (1) steady growth in ECCE participation, with growing numbers of children under 2 years attending for longer hours, (2) a change from mostly community-based ECCE provision to the majority of ECES being provided by private for-profit organisations, (3) that children living in poverty are less likely to attend licensed ECCE services and (4) growing population diversity. Lately the government has focussed on participation/enrolment targets often at the expense of ‘quality’ initiatives, particularly in relation to teaching qualifications.

The original version of this chapter was revised. An erratum to this chapter can be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-1528-1_14

An erratum to this chapter can be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-1528-1_14

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The term enrolments/attendances refers to 2014 data, whereas the term enrolment refers to data up to and including 2013. This is due to a new data collection being utilised by the Ministry of Education for some services.

  2. 2.

    Note that home-based coordinators are qualified ECCE staff who work directly with educators, rather than children, in home-based services. The majority of home-based educators do not have recognised early childhood qualifications.

  3. 3.

    All expenditure cited in New Zealand dollars (NZD)

Abbreviations

ECE:

Early childhood education

ECCE:

Early childhood care and education

ECES:

Early childhood education services

MoE:

Ministry of Education

NAEYC:

National Association for the Education of Young Children

NGOs:

Non-government organisations

NZD:

New Zealand dollar

OECD:

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development

UNCRC:

United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child

UNICEF:

United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Open Polytechnic of New Zealand/Kuratini Tuwhera, Lower Hutt, New Zealand

    Liz Everiss

  2. Auckland University, Auckland, New Zealand

    Diti Hill

  3. Anne Meade Associates, Wellington, New Zealand

    Anne Meade

Authors
  1. Liz Everiss
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  2. Diti Hill
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  3. Anne Meade
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Liz Everiss .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Education, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong

    Hui Li

  2. Department of Early Childhood Education, Ewha Womans University, Seoul, Korea (Republic of)

    Eunhye Park

  3. Department of Early Childhood and Family Studies, Kean University , New Jersey, USA

    Jennifer J. Chen

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Everiss, L., Hill, D., Meade, A. (2017). A Story of Changing State Priorities: Early Childhood Care and Education Policies in Aotearoa New Zealand. In: Li, H., Park, E., Chen, J. (eds) Early Childhood Education Policies in Asia Pacific. Education in the Asia-Pacific Region: Issues, Concerns and Prospects, vol 35. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-1528-1_8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-1528-1_8

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore

  • Print ISBN: 978-981-10-1526-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-981-10-1528-1

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