Anne Tolley has been so distracted by her shambolic implementation of national standards that she has failed to implement National’s election promises for early childhood education – and she’s preparing the sector for bad news in the budget.
At a March 25 meeting, Anne Tolley told the Early Education Federation that the improved staff ratios they promised for under-2’s in this term of Government has been put back by three years.
Her proposal to have shorter courses for primary school teachers and those with overseas qualifications has also gone on hold.
But the most frightening part of the meeting notes, circulating in the sector today, is where Tolley criticises the amount of government spending going into the sector and warns “there are some tough decisions to be made.”
She then points out that in the last 5 years there has been a significant shift from parent cost to government cost. She’s referring to Labour’s hugely successful “20 hour free ECE” policy. No wonder Tolley insisted that the word “free” be dropped from its title!
All very ominous. But wait, there’s more.
She thinks its time the ECE curriculum was reviewed and added we also needed to ensure children had basic literacy and numeracy skills. Sounds familiar. That’s national standards for our three and four year olds. Maybe our under twos? Imagine being labelled a failure at kindy!
I think its time John Key stepped in and saved our kids from being subjected to Anne Tolley and her incompetency. She is failing early childhood education.
Its possibly an example of what happens when politicians decide on things outside their expertise. If we want higher standards start earlier. Good. Increase Early childhood support. No. Introduce Standards for little kids. If this is true then it would be a killer of education.
For a second I thought you were Trev
Arrrgh, Tolley’s idea of hounding the toddlers is a shocker
Lose Te Whariki? Are you serious? OMG – is nothing sacred with this woman. She is, without a doubt, the worst MP for education and the worst MP full stop. My goodness – who is giving this woman such appalling and stupid advice!
The 20hrs childcare – not means tested – is the best thing for families that lab ever did – I would be most upset to see this get tinkered and tweaked so that it gets lost.
The private schools think Tolley is the greatest, especially since apart from the governments money she has no say on what they teach or how they do it.
Gwwalks: If the private schools had to endure National Testing maybe they would not be so approving.
This is what happens when education policy comes from the Business Round Table, via John Key. The world, and our children are nothing like we were, and taking them back to systems that are over 30 years old might make us feel better about our past but will jeopardise their futures.
Messing with the 20 hours free ECE would inflict serious damage to National. It would almost be enough for Labour to get my vote back.
They want more children enrolled in ECE but she takes away the 20 free hours?
On 29 October 2009, Minister of Education, Anne Tolley, announced that the timeframe for achieving the 80% teacher registration target in teacher-led, centre-based Early Childhood Education (ECE) services has been extended to 2012 and now improved staff ratios they promised for under-2’s in this term of Government has been put back by three years?
It has always concerned me that Te Whaariki Early Childhood Curriculum would change under her. It already has a strong focus on Literacy.
Anne Tolley said she was qualified to be Education Minister because she was a mother. So does that me qualified for the job too?
I can see it now. 3 and 4 year olds made to sit still and fill in worksheets, having a failed mark at the top of them to show their parents when they come to collect them.
In june the Government cut the funding for early childhood education centres of innovation, the early childhood education advisory training and education fund, the early childhood education exemplar development programme, and the early childhood education information and communications technology framework, and cut the funding to reduce staff-child ratios, all of which improve the quality of early childhood education.
I have always been worried about what the standards would do to ECE. Always wondered if there would be an up roar if Te Whariki is touched and tampered with
A Mother: The money saved from all those cuts would help pay the cost of implementing the National Standards. That would be a fair swap wouldn’t it?
Is this for real? Is Tolley seriously thinking of introducing standards for pre-schoolers – a time where the curriculum is about free-play, learning to share, socialise and gain the confidence needed for school? I sincerely hope not! Good God that means my children would be failures as they are very ‘creative’ with how they write their names!
As for the 20 “FREE” ECE – they have been brilliant thank you Labour however, you may want to know that for most parents who are in work and their children are enrolled at a private childcare centre, the 20 free hours is FAR from “free”.
Childcare centres charge for the first 20 free hours as they claim that it is only a subsidy of about $5 per hour per child whereas most centres charge $8 per hour. For the many working families that DON’T qualify for the WFF Childcare Subsidy, they are forced to pay up to $100 or so extra for those so-called “free” hours as well as the childcare cost for the remaining hours where appropriate.
Childcare centres are not supposed to be able to do this, and it is stated in the ECE policy yet they do it anyway as parents are caught between a rock and hard place – just like they are re public holidays where the “free” ECE doesn’t apply yet every childcare centre under the sun charges for these days even though they are closed. This to me is the same as a business charging its regular customers who eat on the days they are closed for public holidays. It’s just plain wrong.
So yes, Tolley is right – the “free” should be taken out of the title!
“So yes, Tolley is right – the “free” should be taken out of the title!”
Or else put a true FREE plan in place. We all recognise that about 80% of learning is done in the first 5 years. Vital support especially for kids from “poor” homes.
Ianmac if that was possible, then why didn’t they do that last time? The rate per hour per child varies from region to region, centre to centre so I would imagine it would be very hard to get them to all agree to it – private childcare centres are after profit and profit alone. Hence why they take 9 months to send their condolences to parents whose child died in their centre from choking on a piece of apple…
Yes Rebecca: Of course they are running a business for profit and I suppose good luck to them.
Education in NZ is “free” so why not make pre-school including child-care free as the groundwork for actively helping the kids from the homes of those on the benefit have a better chance, as well as all the other kids. Isn’t lack of pre-school experience one of the pre-cursors to later problem? A sort of ambulance at the top of the cliff? (You wanted suggestions on how to help.)
Ianmac you’d get no argument from me; you’re essentially preaching to the converted!
All childcare should be free as the reality is, very few parents can afford to have children and not return to work yet the cost of childcare puts them in a lose-lose situation.
While the cheaper more parent-led things like Kindergarten, Playcentres and Kohanga Reos do so much fantastic work in terms of providing great childcare and bringing families and communities together, they don’t offer the hours of care or have the appropriate licensing to provide full-day care for children whose parents work.
In terms of “lack of pre-school experience one of the pre-cursors to later problem” – no, I don’t think so at all.
There is no research that shows children benefit from any childcare before the age of 3. After the age of 3 yes, it is beneficial which was one of the main reasons Labour brought in the 20 hours ECE initiative.
As for childcare preventing children from becoming violent offenders – again, there is no research that I am aware of. The only way it would help in this instance is that it keeps those children safe for at least 20 hours of their week and has the potential to involve more people in their lives in terms of keeping an eye on them.
In all likelihood, I can’t see any government making all childcare free, but the suggestion that Tolley may remove the funding that is currently in place thanks to Labour is a huge worry.
Having watched the debacle in the house yesterday I can’t see a way to save Te Whariki – a world leading ece curriculum which manages to encompass both Maori and Western world views and value children for themselves.
There was research done in the USA with Headstart (an ECE programme) that showed a correlation between criminal offending and not attending pre-school.
Most recent MinEd research indicated children under 2 can become more stressed in childcare than if they are at home IF they didn’t have a specific caregiver in the childcare setting. The key to good ECE is quality and quality of curriculum, which Te Whariki most certainly is.
Rebecca. We do agree on much. Though I had in mind an all encompassing program not just separating child care as a separate entity. (Personally I am pleased that our kids spent early years at home with their Mum or me and at Playcentre.) Playcentre is self funded or was. How about fully funding Play-centre, Kindergarten and all others meaning beyond just child care. Would you agree that such funding would make access easy and productive and long term preventative of failure? And I don’t mean teaching reading but say experiencing books, and drama, waterplay and communicating etc. How far would £32million go on starting fully funding?
Of course much better to spend money on buiilding new prisons for the people we are going to lock up after they’ve committed crimes than to put that money into pre-school, free and quality, as an ambulance at the top of the cliff
I think that 20hours of heavily-subsidised ECE is a great thing in many ways, including the fact that more people have a role in the care of the child (takes a village concept). It has been beneficial for my mental health to have a break from a high intensity child, without resorting to the electronic babysitter (TV), knowing the child would be well stimulated via centre’s use of Te Whariki.
Anne Tolley does not appear to have a clue about education that doesn’t come from ‘people round the BBQ’ or her young grandson. While the whole education sector is looking to individualise learning to each student’s needs, the Minister is looking to put children into measurable units and have statistics show ‘improvement’ while disregarding anyone (or any child) that falls outside her plan.
Ianmac: I would love nothing more! Having put my youngest child into a genuinely 20 hours free ECE childcare centre when she turned 3 (Linda it was a godsend) then swapping over to Kindergarten when they had a full 20 hour slot available (so that she could make friends with kids going to the same school) I believe that there is very little difference between the really good childcare centres and Kindergarten. The hours seem to be the main difference as the emphasis on Te Whariki and free play etc were the same. Both have struck a great balance.
I personally am in favour of Kindergarten’s extending their hours so that they can at least accommodate 3 & 4 year olds for a school day and would like to see them and all full-day childcare facilities fully-funded so that it is free for parents who have to work and 20 free hours for those who are able to have one parent at home. I don’t really know enough about Playcentre – as an at-home Mum being involved in a parent-dominated centre was the last thing I wanted as for me childcare was about getting some stimulis away from the children.
In terms of whether Te Whariki remains part of the curriculum – to be honest, I’m ambivalent as I am not Maori and personally would like more emphasis on NZ as a multi-cultural society rather than the current bi-cultural emphasis. I think learning about our relationship with Maori is important in terms of the NCEA and that NZ history & the Treaty of Waitangi should be a main subject at school (unlike the English medieval stuff we studied!). While I love the culture my focus is more on confidence, learning to share and interact and developing empathy. These are things I think are the most important when it comes to the learning of a pre-schooler.
@rebecca “Childcare centres charge for the first 20 free hours as they claim that it is only a subsidy of about $5 per hour per child whereas most centres charge $8 per hour. For the many working families that DON’T qualify for the WFF Childcare Subsidy, they are forced to pay up to $100 or so extra for those so-called “free” hours as well as the childcare cost for the remaining hours where appropriate.”
Our family fitted that model – and we paid a few bucks extra a week (food I think) – if the childcare place even thought about charging that kind of money on the free hours we would have caused major stink. That is appalling – where do you go? Tell the moe. Its their job to regulate it and my understanding is that they do.
@Ianmac 4.45
No.
I’m currently training in early years 0-8yrs and have a 3yr old and a 21mth old so both are subject dear to my heart. The ECE curriculum makes sense, its a holistic view of the child and National Standards do not make any sense at all. National standards goes against all the research that I’ve done so far and Anne Tolley can’t give straight answers as to National standards. She has let go of the people that help set up the curriculum in primary schools for sicence, art, music, social studies, anything not related to literacy and maths. I fail to see how it can help, will narrow the currirulum and can only see it will hurt children.
I hope your joking about it being a fair swap.
@Mother – it sure is a worry. Te Whaariki is a very very good curriculum – tampering with it is not good – nor is tampering with the 20 hrs. I am not impressed by not having qualified people in front our our kids either – pushing that out was just silly.
It is my understanding that she (Tolley) reads this blog – so my message to her right now, is keep your unskilled hands off this curriculum, learn something about education, sack your advisors, let go of the silly standards and go back to real estate.
O rly? Which culture, then, would you say has the monopoly on those aspects?
A Mother: Certainly I was being ironic/sarcastic. I am aghast at the waste of money on National Testing!!!!
The politicians who make the decisions know the things that would halve crime. Early Education is one as everyone above agrees. The political courage to really make a difference is lacking. Imagine John Key or for that matter Phil Goff saying:
“Hoi! The lock em up method makes things worse. For each potential criminal that stays out of trouble we save at least $90,000 per year. So listen folks we will abandon the tough on crime and spend the money saved, wisely, on prevention and rehabilitation, and an Early childhood fully funded option. Will you lot on the Sensible Sentencing Trust join with me? Will the population at large join with me and reverse the poisonous rhetoric for the sake of our society?”
Its OK Mother. I live in a fantasy world I know. How about that Collins woman going to say Finland with (choke) an open mind? (Rebecca. Let me say it for you. Labour was in power for 9 years and they too increased the penalties….) Agreed.
@Ianmac
Thank goodness. Thought the world was going crazy.
Lanuage and literacy is a big part of the ECE curriculum already. Its a huge part. It done in a way to prepare them to read and write. I’m worried Anne is going to want to sit them down and make them fill in worksheets.
It has happened overseas where national testing were introduced. Look at USA for one example. She hasn’t come out and said that though but if anyone has ever looked at Te Whaariki you will see how great it really is, and how much sense it makes for this age group. You can download it at MoE website.
@Rebecca, Playcenter gives me the opp to talk to other adults and interact with my children at the same time. I would go crazy otherwise. While it is run by parents you have to do the training to be able to help on sessions, training is NZQA. I agree. As long as its quality childcare as you said that is the important thing.
@A Mother 8.38 Agreed
Actually 
FF 2 
11 !!!!
Aw Ianmac – Phil’s not the one with the government that’s bringing in these horrible standards
G
@Rebecca. Te Whariki is not PART of ECE curriculum -it IS the ECE curriculum. Don’t be put off by the Maori name. It’s a wonderful curriculum for developing the whole child and includes some aspects of Maori culture such as importance of extended family that European culture has lost somewhat out here in ‘the colonies’.
The individualised learning resulting from Te Whariki in ECE and the new NZ Curriculum in primary school is, in my opinion under threat from National Standards focus on comparing individuals with each other. If the focus was on rate of progress (what I’m actually concerned with for individual children) then National Standards would not be necessary. Just require schools to report rate of progress by a verified assessment system such as PAT or asTTle and you’re done, low cost and meets perceived mandate.
You said that so well Linda.
I hope they don’t touch Te Whariki. I like how it has a focus on the child as a whole including the home, and wider community in their education.
20 free hours is just as important. It is needed. How can she want more children attending ECE yet take away the ability for parents to pay for it?
It will show problems at other sectors too. Paula Bennett stated that she would like to see Solo Parents (who need the 20 free hours for sanity, they really do) working or studying during this time so when they turn 6, they can go out to work. Can’t if 20 free hours is taken away. Childcare subs for solo parents is 9hrs a week. Its a backward step.
Children I do believe need some form of ECE before starting school. Being away from their main caregiver all of a sudden would be a total shock when starting school otherwise.
Linda having got children in pre school I a very much aware of Te Whariki and what it entails. I have no issue with Anne Tolley removing it in terms of its current format as emphasis is on Maori culture rather than multi-cultural. In terms of it embracing the “whole child”, honestly pre-school is not that deep! Pre-school is and should be foremost about free play, teaching children to share, interact and have empathy for one another. This is where the majority of the learning is and should be. These things are easily achieved outside Te Whariki.
Ianmac: “So listen folks we will abandon the tough on crime and spend the money saved, wisely, on prevention and rehabilitation, and an Early childhood fully funded option.” – my thoughts exactly. It starts with the child.
In regards to Te Whariki (excuse my previous spelling of it) it is a fantastic document – and I beg to differ – it does encompass multi cultural perspectives (as does the NZ curric). EG: Strand 4 – Communication
“The languages and symbols of their own and other cultures are promoted and protected.” (but it is threaded throughout)
What is most impt as a NEW ZEALAND document however, is that it also recognises the importance of the principles of Te Tiriti o Waitangi. It shows the commitment to this and acknowledges that all students should have opportunities to know and understand the dual heritage of NZ. (and before you jump up and down about the muliti cultural nature of NZ – of which I agree – NZ is Maori and Pakeha – that is the two offical languages of the country and we have a responsibility to ensure this is upheld – and yes the third lang is sign, but my point is that our dual heritiage is special and we must protect that – it is our culture – if people don’t like that about being a kiwi – aussie is across the ditch)
Happy Easter Paul
Happy Easter Linda. Happy Easter Ianmac 
Happy Easter Sue!
Happy Easter Ghost, Tracey, Labrat, elgoodall, Rebecca, and BLiP 
right back at ya spud! etal…
We have had multi-cultural heritage since the Chinese came here during the gold rush in the 1860s. I think it is a blight on our country that we fail to recognise this. This is far more important than sign language.
This sort of nonsense goes around and around in its own twisted logic vortex amongst the less able who cannot accept that Aotearoa is both bicultural AND multicultural. It is bicultural in that we recognise and grant first nation status to Ngati Whenua who, in turn, grant the rest of us the right to share their resources in an equitable manner via Te Tiriti. After that, we can recognise and celebrate when required other cultures within society.
Get over it.
@Paul. Spelling was correct. Te Whariki if have a line over the a or Te Whaariki if not. That is how we have to write it for essays.
Cheers Spud! Hope you’re having a great Easter too.
My experience of Te Whariki is through Playcentre where parent training is very important to the quality of our sessions. I find that Playcentre IS ‘that deep’ and we do look to develop all aspects of the children such as their sense of belonging, relationships at the Centre, along with more standard skills such as making a good mud pie!!
Don’t forget the gloop Linda. My daughter smothers that all over her face and mine at playcentre. It has to be the right consistency. Yes parent training is very important at Playcentre.
I hope they leave Te Whariki alone. I hope someone tells her tampering with the current curriculum is a step too far. If she does she would be gone for sure.
T
LLY
When Tolley leaves education where will she go?
The answer:
http://www.trelease-on-reading.com/no-dentist.html
Ministry of Health where there are another bunch of professionals to ignore and impose ‘new standards’ on.
Her latest ranting
http://www.beehive.govt.nz/speech/speech+first+time+principals+conference
A friend of mine just returned from that conference – Tolley was patronising and full of spin.
BLiP
I don’t know how long people will be polite about claims of privilege through accident of birth. That is part of a bygone era which included many things that would not be tolerated today.
I have been here longer than most and would not have the cheek to claim any special deference for that.
However long my line is before that is not relevant to my contribution to society around me.
People are equal in the eyes of most and it took a long time for that situation to be reached. Lets not slip back to times of inequality while reaping the benefits of today. Children grow into tolerant beings if they are nurtured in tolerant surroundings.
Tolerance is not fostered by demands but is engendered with personal recognition.
Tolley works for he same mob as Key