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Minister, Hon. Steve Maharey’s address to the
Early Childhood
Council
Annual
Conference
31st March 2007
Welcome everyone. It's great to see you all.
I'd like to acknowledge Early Childhood Council (ECC) President Ross
Penman, CEO Sue Thorne and ECC Executive members, Jan Peeters from
the University of Ghent in Belgium, keynote speakers and of course
the people who work with our youngsters - you.
Thank you for the invitation to speak with you, I'm looking forward
to hearing about your discussions.
Last year in Rotorua I spoke with many of you about our vision for
early childhood education by 2012. I said then that our collective
challenge is to think about strategic and innovative ways to achieve
our vision of all children being able to access quality early
childhood education, regardless of circumstance, and I highlighted
the importance of quality in ECE - the thing that brings us all
together here.
A year later I'm even more inspired by the great things that are
happening in early childhood education. Work in the sector continues
to be exciting and innovative - I would to start my comments today
by thanking the Early Childhood Council for their constructive
engagement in developing an early childhood sector for the 21st
century.
We have committed and professional people working with children in
creative ways and providing our children with the best start to
their educational journey.
Some of you have will have already heard me talk about personalising
learning over the past few months. I believe that early childhood
educators are in a position to provide inspiration across the
education sector in thinking about how personalising learning can
transform our education system for the 21st century.
I want our students to be as excited by their learning the day they
leave school as they were on the first day they spent in one of your
services.
Knowledge society
Like most other nations, New Zealand is transforming to a knowledge
society. A knowledge society is a key driver of the economy.
Knowledge has always been important, but never as pivotal as it is
now.
We are transforming New Zealand to a knowledge-based economy and
society; a country producing high-value goods and services; a
country competing on the global stage; a country where all New
Zealanders have a strong sense of identity and achieve to the best
of their abilities.
The development of a knowledge society is of huge importance to
education. It requires us to transform the way we think about
education and the way we think about knowledge.
Learners will need more than "one shot" of education that will serve
them for life. They will need the skills for life-long learning.
They will need to sustain the dispositions for learning that you are
helping them to develop through quality early childhood education:
to be curious, to ask questions, to explore and find out, to
persevere and to be resilient.
ECE strategic plan
You are leading the way in transforming education to meet the needs
of a knowledge society. This leadership is built on the clear vision
that is captured in our Strategic Plan for Early Childhood
Education, Pathways to the Future: Ngâ Huarahi Arataki, which is
owned and driven by you.
Our shared commitment is to ensure that all families have access to
quality education services that are responsive to their needs and
those of their children. Quality early childhood education provides
strong foundations for life-long learning and enables our children
to contribute strongly to the knowledge society.
Research alongside your professional experience tells us that we
will achieve this by delivering the three goals of the Strategic
Plan:
· Improving the quality of early childhood education services;
· Increasing participation in quality ECE services; and
· Promoting collaborative relationships.
Personalising Learning
I began using the term personalising learning widely once I had
listened closely to people in the education sector. I decided that
it captured the best and most progressive features of what we are
doing to enable our youngest children to create and use knowledge.
Many of the things I see happening in early childhood education
exemplify what personalising learning is about. I already see young
children with the dispositions for learning in a knowledge society.
Parents, teachers and children are all engaged in what children are
learning and how they are learning.
· Curriculum - Te Whâriki, the curriculum document for early
childhood education, creates opportunities for teachers to build
learning around the interests of children. Sector feedback on the
proposal to make Te Whâriki the compulsory curriculum framework for
all early childhood education is being collated for analysis;
· Strong Engaged Communities - understanding the learning
expectations of families and whânau and the wider community; and
supporting families, whânau and communities to work together with
ECE services and schools to best support and strengthen their
children's learning along with other agencies and organisations
involved with children's wellbeing;
· Leadership setting the conditions for and championing
personalising learning;
· A highly supportive system helping you lead your services and
support your families and communities, ranging from resourcing to
professional development and ECE criteria; and
· Strong Engaged Communities - understanding the learning
expectations of families and whânau and the wider community; and
supporting families, whânau and communities to work together with
ECE centres and schools to best support and strengthen their
children's learning along with other agencies and organisations
involved with children's wellbeing;
I'd like to share with you two communities who we're now going to
visit, and look how they connect learning.
The first of these examples of personalising learning which
highlights a number of these components is what happens in A'oga
Fa'a Samoa in Auckland. It was the first licensed Samoan-language
ECE centre in New Zealand. Established 20 years ago, it is still the
only licensed Samoan centre connected to a primary school that has a
Samoan-language programme.
They implement Te Whâriki within a Samoan language immersion
environment. Another Centre of Innovation, they looked at what helps
learning and Samoan language continuity as the children make
transitions within and from A'oga Fa'a Samoa and how research
findings about bilingualism and secure attachment can be
implemented. As the supervisor / manager says "All I know is that we
will never stand still."
Let's look at how they involve their community in their centre.
Now let's visit our friends in Glen Innes. Te Kohanga Reo o Puau Te
Moananui a Kiwa, another COI, works within Mâtauranga Mâori to help
develop te reo. Their research questions included what changes will
enhance te reo Maori learning; what changes will contribute to
strengthening Mâori identity; and what will prepare mokopuna for
success in their life's journey? This work recognises the pivotal
importance of language in strengthening identity and supporting
achievement for mokopuna and their whânau. It brings together the
various worlds of mokopuna.
These are real examples which demonstrate all the connections I've
been talking about and underline that the components of
personalising learning are all a part of the work you are already
doing to achieve the goals of the ECE Strategic Plan.
High Quality services
To make a difference to children's learning, early childhood
education needs to be good quality.
A particular focus through the strategic plan has been ensuring that
quality ECE provision is directly linked to quality teachers, with
the tools at their fingertips to support effective teaching and
learning.
We all acknowledge the central importance of quality teaching in ECE.
Qualified teachers
To strengthen the early childhood sector, we decided we needed all
early childhood teachers to meet a minimum professional standard.
I applaud your sector for leading the move towards teacher
registration and for your efforts in getting more teachers qualified
and registered. At July 2006, 56% of all early childhood teachers in
education and care services were qualified and registered; compared
with 39% in 2004 - this is a tremendous achievement! I urge you to
keep up your efforts so that all services will have at least 50% of
staff qualified by the end of this year.
Diversity
At the same time, it is important that we have a diverse range of
people who come from all walks of life to teach our children. It is
pleasing to know that there have been steady increases in early
childhood teachers from Mâori and Pasifika backgrounds.
I know many of you are concerned about the low proportions of men
working as early childhood teachers, and that more men in early
childhood teaching would improve the balance of educational
experience for children. It's a challenge for us all.
Some of you may have read the story about Ray Margrain in the Sunday
Star Times on 4 March. Ray enjoyed being a stay-at-home dad so much
that he decided the next step was a career in ECE. He'd been an
electrical technician for 27 years before he decided ECE was for
him. Ray did his diploma in ECE and says he's found his "passion".
The article notes too that "a couple of the boys [at his centre]
have told me they want to be teachers too - it's great that they see
it as an option."
You'll be interested to know that TeachNZ are currently developing
promotional material to get more men into ECE teaching. Samples of
the work to date will be available at this conference.
Assessment and Curriculum
Effective teaching depends in part on the tools that are available
to support qualified teachers. It's about bringing together
experience, assessment resources and curriculum to create learning
opportunities to meet the needs of diverse learners.
I am pleased that the ECE sector continues to lead initiatives to
improve the quality of teaching and learning practices in your
services. I have heard that most services are engaged in Kei Tua o
te Pae: Early Childhood Exemplars, and the professional development
that is running alongside them. Professional development providers
are already reporting that teachers are using the exemplars to
strengthen their responsiveness to children's interests and
strengths.
Increasing participation
For all New Zealand families to be able to participate in and
prosper from the knowledge society, we must ensure that no child
misses out on the opportunity to participate in quality early
childhood services.
A key strength of early childhood education is that quality in
teaching and learning happens across a diverse range of services. I
appreciate the services you provide in your communities. Many of you
have built these services up from the beginning and it's testimony
to you that you have continued to focus on what your communities
need and what your children need, at the same time.
We have made huge gains in participation since the introduction of
the Strategic Plan. It's good to see that more Mâori and Pasifika
children are now participating in early childhood education. For
example, 90% of Mâori tamariki starting school in 2006 had
participated in early childhood education, compared with 86% in
2002.
In 2006, 84% of Pasifika schools entrants had participated in early
childhood education, up from 79% in 2002.
Despite these gains, there are still groups missing out on early
childhood education. Did you know that children who enter decile 1
schools are ten times less likely to have attended early childhood
education than a child who enters a decile 10 school?
The Promoting Participation Project is one of the ways we are
working to ensure that children from these families have the
opportunity to participate in quality early childhood education.
In Pukekohe a promoting participation project identified children
where there was no available licensed ECE service available. A
playgroup was set up and then the community worked together to
develop and open an ECE service licensed for 50 families.
20 Hours Free
Lifting the numbers of children participating in early education is
important, and we need to ensure that children get the maximum
benefits from participation. Research tells us that participation in
education needs to be regular and sustained to make a difference.
20 Hours Free ECE is one way of encouraging parents to increase
their children's participation, give more New Zealanders a good
start in life and give parents greater choice about caring, living
and working.
I met with your representatives on Monday to discuss how Free ECE
was working. I have been impressed with your executive's
determination to represent your concerns, and make this policy work
for children and families. This kind of constructive dialogue is
what will make a difference.
When looking at offering Free ECE you need consider how you
currently offer your services, the patterns of children's
participation and income for Free ECE hours, and discuss with
parents the additional services you provide.
We are not telling you how to do this - this is your decision to
make as the owner of your services. Neither the ministry nor I will
be expecting to see unreasonable increases in fees after Free ECE
begins, and the ministry will be monitoring fees and will be
advising government of any considerable increases.
As we are so close to rolling out Free ECE it would be irresponsible
to make changes to the policy at this stage. Some of you have
expressed concerns about the funding rates.
The Free ECE rates have been set to cover 100% of the average cost
of providing early childhood education to the regulated standards.
The rates are based on actual operational costs that all services
were asked to provide, they are reliable and accurate.
For those of you who provide additional services, the rates may not
cover all costs. You have the flexibility to talk to your parents
about donations or Optional Charges. Just a reminder too, that if a
parent agrees to an Optional Charge, the services can enforce
payment, just like you do now with your fees.
Many parents who have been contacting me are saying they are happy
to contribute to the cost of their child's education. I'm
encouraging parents to talk with their services, to let them know
that they are happy to commit to contributing in this way. You need
to have the conversation with your parents so you can agree the best
way of offering Free ECE that works for your parents and your
service.
I also want to stress the importance of attending the Ministry of
Education training which is happening now until the end of May. The
ministry is keen to work with you and want to support you as much as
possible, so please do talk to them if you have any questions or
need more advice. After attending the workshops, 90 per cent of
services said they had enough information to clearly understand the
policy, and 90 per cent also felt confident they knew the steps
required to offer it.
We'd all agree that quality early childhood education helps children
develop a foundation for successful life-long learning. Free ECE is
one way of encouraging parents increase their children's
participation in quality ECE, will give more New Zealanders a good
start in life and will give parents greater choice about their
children's regular involvement in ECE.
Building collaborative relationships
We know that parent and whânau participation is essential to
improving learning outcomes for children. We need to be able to work
together - services, parents, agencies and community groups.
Personalising learning identifies the need to understand the
learning expectations of families, whânau and the wider community,
and the challenge of developing stronger networks for learning with
all the stakeholders involved with children's wellbeing.
Whenever teachers can link the learning a child is doing in the ECE
service with learning that the child has done at home and with their
family they are achieving both strengthened learning for the child
and learning that is connected to the world of the child and their
family.
I am really keen to hear about some of the ways that your services
are working to link and to strengthen the connections between
learning at home and learning at the ECE service. Have a think about
this and we'll come back to it in a moment.
Another example is one of our Centres of Innovation, here in
Christchurch, where the New Beginnings Pre-School takes a pro-active
approach in working with Te Whâriki. Children are trusted to make
decisions about their own learning. They learn about things that are
relevant and meaningful to them and the lives of their families and
whânau.
I'd now welcome your comments about some of the ways that your
services are working to link and to strengthen the connections
between learning at home and learning at the ECE service.
Thanks for your comments - it's great to hear so many positive
examples.
Another creative way of involving families at a distance is through
the use of Information and Communications Technologies or ICT. ICT
is a way we can push the boundaries of our kids' (and parents')
learning and prepare them for the information and knowledge society.
One of the first centres of innovation, in the COI programme,
Auckland's Roskill South Kindergarten, provides an excellent example
of the innovative use of ICT to enhance early childhood learning and
development. Here, digital cameras, computers, and video have been
used in the kindergarten's programme to allow children to use the
technology and take charge of their own learning and involve their
families in what they are doing.
Conclusion - Vision for ECE
As adults charged with the future of our children we are faced with
great responsibility. In the critical early years of children's
learning New Zealand can continue to be at the vanguard of
transforming to a knowledge society. To lead the world we must all
be able to change
The ECE sector is already contributing to the transformation of our
economy, through starting our children on the path of learning to
learn, stimulating creativity, questioning and problem solving.
We need to recapture the ability that we had as children to dream
without limits about the future. We need to dare to follow our
dreams and the realities of our children. We need to recapture that
spirit of adventure, when each new thing we learn is like gleefully
tearing open an unexpected present.
Thanks for having me.
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