ALOHA TO MY OHANA

Sharing Web Resources 2

I am very excited to share with you the latest news I gathered from the Early Child Care in New Zealand. I find it very interesting use it focuses on equity and excellence in early childhood field. It gave me high hopes on the future of early childhood education. In spite of the current downfall of the global economy, the New Zealand Government has invested an extra $550.3 million in early childhood education (ECE) over the next four years. It will allow as many families as possible to access quality ECE services where they needed most (http://www.ecc.org.nz/).

  The Government’s priorities for ECE will increase participation for Maori, Pasifika and children from lower socio-economic backgrounds that will benefit the most from ECE, while also controlling the Government expenditure.

Budget 2011 includes:

• $416.7 million over four years to meet increased demand from more children staying in ECE for longer periods of time and population growth.
• $61 million over four years for a Universal Cost Adjustment to Early Childhood Education Funding Rates. The non-salary component of ECE funding rates will be increased by 2.92 per cent. $21.5 million over four years for extending Equity Funding.
• $12.8 million operating and $18 million capital expenditure over four years for an early learning information system to improve information about participation and system performance.
• $20.3 million over four years to extend early childhood education for children in State care and to expand the Home Interaction Programme for Parents and Youngsters (HIPPY) for families in most need.

Eligibility for Equity Funding has been extended to all ECE services that provide ECE to children from high-need communities. 

I have learned that Equity Funding is being introduced to reduce educational disparities between different groups, reduce barriers to participation faced by those groups under-represented in ECE services. It also supports ECE services to raise the level of children’s educational achievement. It also provides additional resources to ECE services that enrol children from high-need communities, and will be available to all eligible ECE services from 1 July 2011.

Extending Equity Funding supports Government’s priority for ECE, which is to ensure those families who are not currently taking part and who would benefit the most participate in quality ECE(http://www.lead.ece.govt.nz/ManagementInformation/RecentAnnouncements/Budget2011.aspx).

Author Heckman writes, “The logic is quite clear from an economic standpoint. We can invest early to close disparities and prevent achievement gaps, or we can pay to remediate disparities when they are harder and more expensive to close. Either way we are going to pay. And we'll have to do both for a while. But, there is an important difference between the two approaches. Investing early allows us to shape the future; investing later chains us to fixing the missed opportunities of the past. Controlling our destiny is more in keeping with the American spirit.”   

The outside links that I have explored supports the importance of having access to early childhood education. It explains the special attachment between adult and child which forms relationship and enables children to reach their full potential. It also creates a template for how they will get on with others and the type of relationship they will form in the future. It also tackled the issue on how brain connections are formed in response to everyday experiences (http://www.brainwave.org.nz/).  The negative implications on children’s IQ, greater risk of developing emotional disorders, learning disabilities and behavioural problems brought about poor environment and relationship on children were also explained on this site.

The three experts on the importance of the first three years: Professor Sir Peter Gluckman, Dr. Simon Rowley and Lauren Porter share the important role of parent in the first three years of their children’s lives. They encourage parents to give their children plenty of love and attention that will benefit their cognitive capacity, their intellectual performance, and the range of neurological and behavioural outcomes that will influence their how they will do well in life. They also tells parent to enjoy and have fun with their children (www.brainwave.org.nz).

References:

http://www.brainwave.org.nz

http://www.ecc.org.nz

http://www.lead.ece.govt.nz/ManagementInformation/RecentAnnouncements/Budget2011.aspx