Early Childhood Education teachers play a crucial role in educating young children, the Teaching Council says. Photo: RNZ / Cole Eastham-Farrelly
The Teaching Council has spoken out, after the government watered down early childhood teachers' pay-parity arrangements.
The professional body for teachers said the government must take care not to undermine a well-qualified early childhood sector.
Chief executive Lesley Hoskin said early childhood teachers played a crucial role in educating young children.
"We urge the government to proceed with caution with any changes that could make education and care centres less attractive places to work in for the qualified teachers that our children need.
"Unless they are based upon a strong focus on meeting young children's learning needs, changes in this area risk undermining educational outcomes at primary, secondary and tertiary levels. They could also create a two-tier system, where only families that can afford higher costs receive better learning opportunities."
Last year, the government cut relief teachers from pay parity and, this week, it announced newly qualified teachers could be placed on the lowest salary step, regardless of prior qualifications and experience.
It also introduced a two-year moratorium to prevent services moving from a lower-paid to higher-paid tier of the graduated parity system.
Early Childhood New Zealand Te Rio Maioha, which represented hundreds of early childhood centre owners and managers, said the sector faced a dark future as a result of the changes and the budget's below-inflation 0.5 percent increase to the sector's subsidies.
Organisation chief executive Kathy Wolfe said the government demonstrated that it did not believe decades of evidence that showed high-quality ECE led to better outcomes for children.
"This government appears to be saying that experience and education no longer matter, that quality early childhood education can be sacrificed in the name of government cost-cutting," she said.
"The announcement to freeze pay parity for two years is also a further sign that the government's aim is to reduce their future investment commitments.
"This is purely a fiscal decision for the government. Employers now cannot opt into funded higher parity options to value their teaching staff."
Some ECE centre owners said pay parity was difficult to afford, because the associated government subsidies were inadequate.
However, Ministry of Education figures showed the number of centres opting into the highest tier of parity had increased by 400 since 2023 to 1484 in March 2025.
They also showed the sector employed 23,699 qualified teachers last year and 9610 people who worked with children in teaching roles, but were not qualified.
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