Editorial: Think again on teacher qualifications

The Education Ministry strategic plan that requires 80 per cent of staff at an early childhood centre to hold a recognised diploma or degree next year, and 100 per cent the year after, was announced in 2002. On the face of it, this provided plenty of time for training organisations to boost the pool of qualified teachers, partly by retraining experienced teachers who had not completed a specialised course. Unfortunately, that has not happened, and the clock is ticking. Next year, despite a chronic staffing shortage, preschool centres face the prospect of dismissing some of their most experienced teachers because they remain unqualified.

Fundamentally, the ministry is right to demand qualified teachers. Children in care should be looked after and taught well, whatever the level of education. The highest of standards should be aspired to. But the ministry's plan has brushed up against several impediments. The biggest is a surge of enrolments in the early childhood sector. As intended by the previous Government, more women are going to work while, at the same time, parents are becoming more aware of the importance of starting a child's education early. The upswing in attendance numbers demanded a substantial response in terms of the number of teachers being trained. It has not occurred.

It is now apparent that insufficient resources have been pumped into teacher training to ensure the qualifications targets could be met. As well as a lack of incentives to retrain, there has been little notable encouragement for students to work in preschool education. A particular problem has been the funding cap that dictates the number of students a training organisation can accept on an early childhood course. Given the extent of the staffing problem, there is a strong case for the Government to lift this. Instead, in its first Budget, it directed $69.7 million towards extending the previous Government's policy, making all 5-year-olds eligible for 20 hours of free education.

Education Minister Anne Tolley says increased participation is her highest priority for the sector. The Budget funding will certainly achieve that but also place further pressure on staffing. If the ministry's qualification target is not modified, there will be a shortfall of between 1500 and 2600 teachers next year. As the Early Childhood Council suggests, it seems certain some centres will have to close, some will turn children away because they do not have enough teachers to meet the ministry's teacher-child ratio, and others will face financial problems because "unqualified" staff will not be funded.

The Government has options. One relates to the prescriptive nature of the strategic plan. Captured in the "unqualified" group of preschool teachers are primary teaching degrees. One teacher featured by the Herald yesterday will find herself on the outer despite having a bachelor of education degree in primary education and 16 years' experience in early childhood centres. Obviously, this is absurd. A wider range of qualifications needs to be recognised. The Government appears to acknowledge this, and is also talking of allowing English-speaking foreign teachers to qualify after short intensive courses.

Even with such steps, a deferral of the qualification target looms. This is not only inevitable but wise. Given the staffing shortages, it would be rash to dispense with experienced and capable teachers in pursuit of a contrived target. They should be given an incentive to retrain, including working while studying, and more students should be encouraged to enter the sector. If so, the ministry's target and a higher standard of preschool education will eventually be realised far more easily.