History

Before the year 2006 there was no set percentage of teachers that were required to be qualified to work in an early childhood setting (Tarr, 2006). Between the years 1996 and 2006 there was a 32% increase of children attending licensed early childhood settings. Because of the increase in numbers it was believed that there was a need for more qualified and registered early childhood teachers so that quality teaching could happen. The New Zealand Government came up with a ten year plan which involved 100% of early childhood teachers being qualified and registered by 2012 to ensure that children were getting quality care. This was a huge goal as only 44% of the current teachers were qualified and registered in 2005 and in order to reach 100% qualified by 2012 several thousand early childhood teachers would be made to study to meet the qualified obligations (Tarr, 2006). This all had to be done in the space of six years.

Until the 1970’s, kindergarten teachers in New Zealand were to attend one of four teachers colleges in which they would gain their diploma over the course of two years. In 1975 the courses were no longer available and instead the studies were to be continued alongside the courses of primary teachers (Tarr, 2006). This course gave early childhood teachers a lower status to the primary programme where teachers trained for three years.

In 1986 the early childhood course was extended to three years and the course was slightly changed by teaching the trainees about culture, care for infants, and included information about the importance of children’s families. In 1989 there was debate around whether teachers should be able to use previously gained qualifications to go towards their early childhood qualification and do extra studies to make up to an early childhood diploma (Tarr, 2006). This was put into place and to a lot of people seemed unfair and there were fears for children’s education. How were they meant to do an accurate job as a teacher if they did not complete the same training as a teacher who had completed the full early childhood course? This option was no longer available in 1994 which made many people happy and increased the number of people doing the three year diploma (Tarr, 2006).

In 1999 “the new Minister of Education wrote to the sector” (Tarr, 2006, p. 27) and said that his “vision for early childhood education is one where all centre based early childhood educators will have at least a diploma of teaching (ece) and will be registered teachers” (Tarr, 2006, p. 28). He understood that this would not be able to happen straight away but believed it would be beneficial for children and improvement would happen in phases (Tarr, 2006). In 2002 the phasing in approach began which has briefly been discussed in the first paragraph of this section. A part of the phase also includes pay parity with primary teachers (Tarr, 2006). 

Todays requirements - Atleast 50 percent of teachers in an early childhood centre must be qualified.

"These staff count as having a teaching qualification...


- The person responsible for the early childhood education service
-Any staff member with a recognised early childhood education qualification
-One staff member in their final year of study for an earlly childhood education qualification"
(Ministry of Education, 2015, p. 1).



References

Ministry of Education, (2015). The number of qualified teachers your ECE service needs. Retrieved from: http://www.education.govt.nz/early-childhood/running-an-ece-service/employing-ece-staff/the-number-of-qualified-teachers-your-ece-service-needs/

Tarr, C. (2006). Initial early childhood teacher education. A look at some research, some policy and
some practices. New Zealand journal of teachers work, volume 3, issue 1, 24-32.