EARLY CHILDHOOD SERVICES AS A COMMODITY

Kesting and Fargher, (2008) from the Journal of New Zealand Employment Relations, reinforce this concept of early childhood services as a commodity. They argue that NZ has “one of the lowest labour force participation rates of women in the 25-34 age group among OECD countries,” (p. 16) even though increased participation by women shows that “New Zealand has a relatively high labour force participation rate (the 6th highest in the OECD)” (p. 17). They say this is linked to mother’s childcare arrangements. The OECD reports are concerned about “labour market productivity” (p. 18) and it relationship to childcare.

Kesting and Fargher (2008) state that “4,479 establishments provide childcare to nearly 191,000

children” (Ministry of Education, 2007 as cited in Kesting and Fargher, 2008, p. 19)… “because

childcare is profitable , and there is a big demand for it” (p. 20). Their goal is that New Zealand should be utilizing its labour force better, in particular encouraging women in the 25-34 age group back into the work force. Kesting and Fargher’s (2008) reasoning is that “from a macro-economic perspective well-educated, highly skilled and motivated stay at home mothers are a loss of potential economic growth” (p. 29).Their conclusions and recommendations are that childcare service providers in New Zealand could be achieving this through:

- continued regulation according to international quality standards.

-turning public Kindergartens into full-time providers.

-the purchase of private childcare centres to increase the share of publically owned and administered centres.

-opening new publically funded and run child care centres in undersupplied areas.

Now that Early Childhood is facing the challenge of funding cuts; what is happening in the sector? Kindergartens are compelled to increase their hours due to funding cuts. The Napier Kindergarten Association received the applauded efforts of MP Chris Tremain who attended their latest conference and commented on how well they are adjusting to the new funding cuts with their increased hours and without reducing their 100% teacher qualified rates (Hawke’s Bay Today, 2011). Helen McNaughten from the Napier Kindergarten Association was less impressed saying that the “trickle-down effect” (Hawkes Bay Today, 2011) of funding cuts was only just beginning.  

The Ministry of Education (2011) states that “The Government has also invested in building ECE services on existing school sites in the Counties Manukau area. This includes building at Weymouth Primary (Manurewa), beginning on 11 May, and building of a centre at Mansell Senior School (Papakura), beginning shortly. The Tāmaki Project, which is under development, also involves increasing ECE participation. In addition, the Discretionary Grants Scheme has supported the building of ECE centres with 410 new places for children nationally since July 2009.”

References:

Kesting, S., & Fargher, S. (2008). The effect of early childhood education and care (ECE) costs on the labour force participation of parents in New Zealand. New Zealand Journal of Employment Relations, 33, 16-33. Abstract retrieved 25 April, 2011, from ProQuest database.

McNaughten, H. (2011, 20 April). Kids to pay price for funding cuts. Hawke’s Bay Today, 6.

Ministry of Education. (2011). ECE participation:  Factsheet about the Government's priority to improve ECE participation for Māori and Pasifika children, and children from lower socio-economic backgrounds.Ministry of Education. Retrieved from Ministry of Education website 26/04/11.

Tremain, C. (2011, 20 April). Doing more with less. Hawkes Bay Today, 6.