News early childhood regulations postponed

Image by B.K. Dewey via FlickrIn one of her first actions as Ministry of Education, Anne Tolley has announced that National government would keep its electoral promise to postpone and review the early childhood regulations to be introduced December 1.

"In September, National promised that we would delay the introduction of the new regulations and criteria if we became Government. That promise remains under the new National-led Government.

"We will delay the introduction of the new regulations for six months while we review them and consult further with the sector and parents.

"New services will be licensed and existing services re-licensed under the current regulations while the new regulations are reviewed.

"I am well aware that these new regulations have caused great angst among ECE services which have feared the new rules will seriously impact on their financial viability. Many ECE services also believe that some of the regulations are simply unnecessary."

Source: Beehive Press Release

ABC Australia: Reports say 30000 kids could lose places

Image by publik16 via FlickrABC Childcare Group's receivers McGrathNichol has revealed which centres would remain open and those that are still “under review”.
Nationally, 656 of the company’s childcare centres are independently viable and will remain open. Another 386 are losing money and are under a cloud.

A new government and a new beginning

The birth of this blog incidentally coincides with the swearing-in of a new National-led government in New Zealand. The new team at the top is Anne Tolley as the Minister of Education and her Associate Ministers Dr Pita Sharples and Heather Roy. Dr. Sharples was a key figure behind the Kohanga-Reo (community language-nests/ECE centres for Maori) movement - "total immersion Māori language family programme for young children" .

It would be intresting to see how the new combination at top works and what changes (if any) they make to the ECE policy and the impact it has on practice on the ground.

More later