Pay Parity For Early Learning Workers is Just the Start
It was pleasing to see this ministerial awareness of concerns long voiced by education leaders. With Labour winning a landslide victory, there was hope of political traction finally leading to resolutions. Wednesday’s pre-budget announcement by Hipkins, in the middle of concerns about the public service salary freeze, to bring the pay of ECE teachers in education and care centres in line with that of kindergarten teachers, is a welcome next step towards pay parity. But many silences remain about the enactment of other recommendations of the early learning action plan.
Thinking big
To address this silence, we are ‘thinking big’ to:
Decades-old policy divides between care and education still produce inequities across the ECE sector. New Zealand’s world-renowned integration policies forged in the 1980s are under threat.
The gulf in employment conditions is widening, leaving many teachers in the education and care sector far behind kindergarten teachers despite having the same degree qualifications and certification. Large variations in contracts, reflecting the exponential growth of corporate for-profit provision, is a key impediment to teachers being paid the same, regardless of employer.
Guiding principles for ‘thinking big’
The vision for the plan is that “every child enjoys a good life, learns and thrives in high quality settings that support their identity, language and culture, and that are valued by parents and whānau”.
Enacting this vision requires:
Within the vision of the plan document, three actions were prioritised, each requiring increased funding. Firstly, pay parity was prioritised to achieve equity within the workforce and to enable equitable implementation of all other plan objectives. Secondly, regulations were proposed to improve the ratios of adults to children under age three years. Thirdly, more early childhood qualified teachers were to be trained or retained.
The current teacher shortage undermines the achievement of many planned actions, including the planned increase in the percentage of qualified teachers in order to ensure under-threes are educated by qualified teachers.
The ‘thinking big’ actions
The ELAP’s first objective was focused on children and promoting their wellbeing and that of their whānau. The plan was launched in the same year as the Government’s inaugural Wellbeing Budget. Notwithstanding, a decision was made to delay implementation of improved staffing ratios for children under age three. This was hugely disappointing, as the unsafe staffing ratios for under-threes (a hangover from the 1960 childcare regulations) do not put the interests of children at the fore.
We propose that this delay in improving ratios for under-threes is reversed. The Government needs to act now and put children first. The first 1000 days matter for children’s wellbeing; children currently living their first 1000 days cannot afford to wait another 2000 days.
Pay parity has been long awaited. Its promise was briefly realised for a few in 2004 through the Early Childhood Collective Agreement. At issue is how to achieve it fully given the diversity of education and care services and the numerical dominance of corporate provision with different employment contracts.
We propose consideration is given to the Ministry becoming a party to the Consenting Parties Collective Agreement, which would be linked to the Early Childhood Collective.
As a party to the Consenting Parties Collective Agreement, and thus at the negotiating table, it would be necessary for government to set aside funding to achieve and maintain pay parity.
Restoring a higher level of funding for centres that employ 100 percent qualified staff required in regulation is applauded. This restoration is particularly beneficial for the mainly school-hours kindergartens that have long met the 100 percent qualified teacher threshold. However, for education and care centres opening for long hours, it is difficult to employ 100 percent qualified teachers for 10-plus opening hours each day. The current shortage of qualified teachers compounds this further.
We propose that:
What are we wanting?
We want many more actions in the promised implementation of the early learning action plan to be funded in the 2021 Budget. In ‘thinking big’, we also want the pace of implementation to quicken, otherwise the brave and progressive policy plans for ECE will languish incomplete, further compounding current inequities for children, teachers and families.
Professor Carmen Dalli is Professor of Early Childhood Education at Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington; Helen May is an Emeritus Professor at the University of Otago; and Dr Anne E Meade is an expert in early childhood education in New Zealand. All three are alumni of Victoria University of Wellington and long-time colleagues who, over several decades, have collectively and individually engaged as researchers, writers, teachers, policy advisers and political advocates for government investment in high-quality early childhood services with qualified teachers.
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