Sometimes journalists ask me how I can have the strength or courage to continue because of how challenging I make it sound for the people working in early childhood centres. Many centre managers and owners face a recurring Sunday evening challenge as teachers rostered to work on Monday call in sick. They then have to find cover or organise a relief teacher. ECC’s advice to our members has been to avoid engaging externally employed relief teachers if they can - because of the extremely high rates that are being charged. By extremely high – what I should say is that the hourly rates are now well above $50 per hour when the contribution to the centre (while very important) is more a case of necessity – as regulation and funding rules penalise centres with too few teachers, than it has to do with maintaining the quality of service that day. And this rate of pay has the appearance of making the relief teacher look like the best paid teacher in the centre, yet their professional responsibilities are meant to be the same but on a day-by-day basis they carry much less of the load than our permanently employed teachers. The alternative to external relief agencies is for the employer to build their own wider pool of teachers whom they employ directly. However, the ECE teacher shortage is still the “Number-1” problem facing ECE operators – so that’s easier said than done. On top of this we are not seeing many New Zealand adults seeking to study ECE teaching. Each year the numbers wanting to study dwindle further, to the point where universities are more than likely to be cutting qualifications entirely. That would be incredibly bad news. As someone interested in education policy, what we are seeing either doesn’t make sense or there is something very wrong with our workforce strategy or lack of one. Currently the un-met teacher demand is being met by overseas migrants from countries like the Philippines, South Africa and Singapore – countries where their locally-trained ECE teachers must study to the similar high standard as New Zealand – a Level 7 qualification on the Qualification Framework (e.g. a Bachelor of Teaching). This rules-out teachers trained in the United Kingdom or United States working as teachers in NZ, for example. They don’t meet our standards. It’s still more common for centre managers to be qualified teachers, even though the role of managing a centre is a completely different role and an impossible job at many times – as it’s a compliance minefield. Centre managers and owners end up rostering themselves on to work if they can’t find better cover when teachers are sick. Even a request from parents for their child to have his/her teeth brushed after meals results in the Medicines Administration policies applying. Up until recently Bonjela (soothing for teething) and nappy creams were considered medicines which required individual sign-off from both a teacher and a parent every time they were applied. I wonder how teachers and other educators in ECE centres feel when they are expected to comply with this. We can all appreciate that the incorrect application of toothpaste or nappy cream could be risky for young children. But is a compliance regime like this really the way to get people to do what you want them to do? Managers picking up the slack is something ECC isn’t keen on because they already have so much on their plate. As soon as you have managers teaching, who is left managing? If the owner and manager are the same person, these individuals have an even worse time. Unlike the situation with teachers – whose presence (or lack of) triggers immediate funding and regulatory issues, the lack of a manager matters most when you are being visited by the Ministry or the ERO. Don’t go overseas or take a holiday – that is all it takes to get caught out. We often hear from owners whose centres faced Ministry of Education licensing visits (the Ministry regulates centres using one weapon – the ability to suspend and cancel a licence). If the Ministry doesn’t like what a centre does, they can’t warn it or direct it to improve, but they can cancel its licence to operate. Imagine if MESSAGE CEO's March 2024 { 8 }
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NDc2Mzg=