Jill Bond, CEO of New Zealand Kindergartens (NZK) said their members were thrilled with the news the government will restore funding for qualified and registered early childhood teachers to 100%.

The National government reduced the funding to 80 % in 2010 which meant many kindergartens ended up in deficit and had to use financial reserves.

Jill says the funding is so welcome and will give local Associations much needed financial certainty.

“This is just so exciting for us and has been a long time coming. It’s such good news on the back of what we’ve been going through with Covid-19 and a great boost and recognition for our staff who have been working so hard during this time to support our tamariki and our community.”

“It also means we can now start to plan to do some things at our kindergartens which have been deferred because we just couldn’t afford them.”

Todays’ decision is hugely significant as we have continued to support a 100 % qualified teacher workforce while only receiving funding at 80 %.

NZK and its members have been lobbying the Government to reinstate the funding as it was one of their coalition agreement promises. The reinstatement is one of the key deliverables of the Early Learning Action Plan which NZK took an active role in working with the Ministry of Education and others across the sector to develop.

“This announcement will mean that many Kindergarten Associations who were looking at deficit budgets will now have a significantly improved financial position.

This gives us certainty for the future, and we can start planning to look at deferred maintenance and improvements that have been on the back burner due to lack of funds.”

“We are delighted with the announcement and congratulate the government on their decision.”

For more information please call Jill Bond, CEO New Zealand Kindergartens phone 0274 950 282