Labour's pre-school pledge worth $86m

WELLINGTON - Labour says it will spend an extra $86 million over three years on early childhood education if it becomes the Government. Labour leader Helen Clark says that within its first term in office Labour will develop a long-term plan for early childhood education.

"In the meantime, we are promoting a range of measures to work towards those goals, including incentives for centres to have higher staff-to-child ratios and more qualified staff."

In its early childhood policy released yesterday, the party says it will change the criteria for accessing a higher funding rate to ensure there is a lower ratio of children per teacher. Its education spokesman, Trevor Mallard, said early childhood teachers would be registered with a requirement for ongoing professional development.

Helen Clark said Labour would introduce fairer funding for centres serving low-income areas and rural communities.

Difficulties faced by early childhood centres servicing low-income communities included their limited ability to raise funds.

Labour would introduce equity funding from 2001 to help those centres overcome barriers, she said.

Some of that equity funding would be tagged for programmes to increase participation among Maori and Pacific Island families.

In 1991, 97 per cent of non-Maori 4-year-olds went to early childhood education centres, compared with 75 per cent of Maori 4-year-olds. In 1997, 71 per cent of Maori 4-year-olds participated in early childhood education. Helen Clark said 60 per cent of Pacific Island 4-year-olds went to early childhood centres.

Mr Mallard said a Labour government would recruit more Maori and Pacific Island teachers to the early childhood sector, and provide professional development to help teachers understand Maori and Pacific cultures. Funding would be provided to extend a books-in-the-home programme to the early-childhood sector.

Helen Clark said centres in rural areas faced access and transport problems, and got limited base funding because of their smaller size.

An enrolment-based formula did not cater adequately for areas where regular attendance by children could be prevented, because they were from families with seasonal workers.

Labour would review the funding formula to ensure that factors affecting rural areas were recognised.

She said Labour would work towards pay parity for early childhood education teachers. - NZPA