Media Releases

Early Childhood Council Calls Failure To Reach Low-income And At-risk Children “a National Disgrace”

For more information contact: Peter Reynolds Phone: 028 2582 2322 or 0800 742 742 Email: Peter Reynolds 19 April, 2010 For immediate release Early Childhood Council calls failure to reach low-income and at-risk children “a national disgrace” The Early Childhood Council (ECC) has requested more government attention for “the many thousands of at-risk under fives” currently receiving no early childhood education. The call follows the release of government figures showing that participation in early childhood education has increased over the past ten years, but that the rate of increase has “slowed markedly” over the last few years. ECC CEO Peter Reynolds said the reason for the slowdown could be traced to “a failure to reach out to the poorest of our children, and the most at-risk”. The increase in early childhood education participation rates was stalling, he said, because there was little growth potential left in children from high- and middle-income families, most of whom were participating already. The growth potential lay instead with the many thousand of low-income families currently receiving nothing. The failure to reach low-income and at-risk children was “a national disgrace”, Mr Reynolds said. While it was true that research showed benefits for all kinds of participants in early childhood education, it showed the greatest benefits for the children from the lowest income families. “It is these children whose lives can be turned around if they are sent to school ready to learn, but it is these children least likely to be getting any help in the form of early childhood education,” Mr Reynolds said. “We know they are poor and mostly, but not exclusively, Pasifika and Maori. And we know the areas in which they live. What we need now is some determination to reach out and get them into centres.” The Early Childhood Council is the largest representative body of licensed early childhood centres in New Zealand. Its more than 1000 member centres are both community-owned and commercially owned, employ more than 7000 staff, and care for more than 50,000 children.

19/04/10 - Peter Reynolds