KEY POINTS:
Many children in Manukau are missing out on early childhood education because of the lack of preschools in parts of the city.
An analysis by the City of Manukau Education Trust (Comet) has shown that of the 28,000 children aged 4 or under in Manukau, less than half attended a preschool.
The enrolment was 11,450 in 2006.
The finding comes despite the Government's bid to raise participation rates by providing 20 hours of free childcare for 3- and 4-year-olds.
Although the 20-hours-free policy has helped many families, it has also increased demands for more and better-quality early childhood centres in Manukau City, said the general manager of the Franklin Kindergarten Association, Karen Shields.
"Already there are children who are not participating.
"The implications of the 20-hours-free policy is that the demand has gone up. The challenge for us is to meet that demand," she said.
A meeting held on Friday addressed poor participation rates in early childhood education and the shortage of preschools in the wider Manukau area.
Comet chief executive Bernardine Vester said the policy was impacting on the availability of services.
"There's a large number of families who do not access services, a shortage of qualified staff and real concerns about the capacity of centres to deliver quality services when they are under the pressure of change," she said.
The number of Pacific children enrolled in an early childhood education facility was the lowest among all ethnic groups, even though the national enrolment rate was 84.1 per cent in 2006.
European children had the highest enrolment in early childhood centres at 98 per cent, followed by Asian entrants at 96 per cent and Maori at 89.9 per cent.
Friday's meeting called for more Maori and Pacific Island-focused and full immersion early childhood centres in a bid to address the poor participation rates of these groups.
Sulieti Pauuvale-Moa, from the Akoteu Katokakala preschool - a Tongan bilingual early childhood centre in Otara - said the waiting list of children wanting to come into the facility was getting longer and therefore more Pacific centres were needed to cater to those children missing out.
"We have kids from as far as Manurewa and Papatoetoe.
"But what's happening to our local children? The kid up the road can't come because there's no room."
Ms Pauuvale-Moa acknowledged that there were various factors contributing to Pacific Island children, specifically those in Manukau City, not attending early childhood centres.
"Financial support, quality and even transport are all barriers for some parents."
She said there should be more Pacific-focused training programmes for trainee teachers, in their own languages and cultural ways, to better provide and teach Pacific Island youngsters.
"Why train in a Pakeha way?" Ms Pauuvale-Moa asked.
"It's better to have training in a Pasifika way because these are Pasifika children."
