New Zealand: Early-childhood education in Samoan and other languages

Sun Mar 2 16:41:19 UTC 2008

Jewel Amma Blog
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Early Childhood Council Speech

Minister to address Early Childhood Annual Conference on increasing
participation, high quality services and the upcoming 20 Hours Free
policy. Welcome everyone. It's great to see you all. I'd like to
acknowledge Early Childhood Council (ECC) President Ross Penman, CEO
Sue Thorne and ECC Executive members, Jan Peeters from the University
of Ghent in Belgium, keynote speakers and of course the people who
work with our youngsters - you. Thank you for the invitation to speak
with you, I'm looking forward to hearing about your discussions. Last
year in Rotorua I spoke with many of you about our vision for early
childhood education by 2012. I said then that our collective challenge
is to think about strategic and innovative ways to achieve our vision
of all children being able to access quality early childhood
education, regardless of circumstance, and I highlighted the
importance of quality in ECE - the thing that brings us all together
here.

A year later I'm even more inspired by the great things that are
happening in early childhood education. Work in the sector continues
to be exciting and innovative - I would to start my comments today by
thanking the Early Childhood Council for their constructive engagement
in developing an early childhood sector for the 21st century. We have
committed and professional people working with children in creative
ways and providing our children with the best start to their
educational journey. Some of you have will have already heard me talk
about personalising learning over the past few months. I believe that
early childhood educators are in a position to provide inspiration
across the education sector in thinking about how personalising
learning can transform our education system for the 21st century.

I want our students to be as excited by their learning the day they
leave school as they were on the first day they spent in one of your
services.

Knowledge society

Like most other nations, New Zealand is transforming to a knowledge
society. A knowledge society is a key driver of the economy. Knowledge
has always been important, but never as pivotal as it is now.

We are transforming New Zealand to a knowledge-based economy and
society; a country producing high-value goods and services; a country
competing on the global stage; a country where all New Zealanders have
a strong sense of identity and achieve to the best of their abilities.

The development of a knowledge society is of huge importance to
education. It requires us to transform the way we think about
education and the way we think about knowledge.

Learners will need more than "one shot" of education that will serve
them for life. They will need the skills for life-long learning. They
will need to sustain the dispositions for learning that you are
helping them to develop through quality early childhood education: to
be curious, to ask questions, to explore and find out, to persevere
and to be resilient.

ECE strategic plan

You are leading the way in transforming education to meet the needs of
a knowledge society. This leadership is built on the clear vision that
is captured in our Strategic Plan for Early Childhood Education,
Pathways to the Future: Ngâ Huarahi Arataki, which is owned and driven
by you.

Our shared commitment is to ensure that all families have access to
quality education services that are responsive to their needs and
those of their children. Quality early childhood education provides
strong foundations for life-long learning and enables our children to
contribute strongly to the knowledge society.

Research alongside your professional experience tells us that we will
achieve this by delivering the three goals of the Strategic Plan:

· Improving the quality of early childhood education services;
· Increasing participation in quality ECE services; and · Promoting
collaborative relationships.

Personalising Learning

I began using the term personalising learning widely once I had
listened closely to people in the education sector. I decided that it
captured the best and most progressive features of what we are doing
to enable our youngest children to create and use knowledge.

Many of the things I see happening in early childhood education
exemplify what personalising learning is about. I already see young
children with the dispositions for learning in a knowledge society.
Parents, teachers and children are all engaged in what children are
learning and how they are learning.

· Curriculum - Te Whâriki, the curriculum document for early childhood
education, creates opportunities for teachers to build learning around
the interests of children. Sector feedback on the proposal to make Te
Whâriki the compulsory curriculum framework for all early childhood
education is being collated for analysis;

· Strong Engaged Communities - understanding the learning expectations
of families and whânau and the wider community; and supporting
families, whânau and communities to work together with ECE services
and schools to best support and strengthen their children's learning
along with other agencies and organisations involved with children's
wellbeing;

· Leadership setting the conditions for and championing personalising learning;

· A highly supportive system helping you lead your services and
support your families and communities, ranging from resourcing to
professional development and ECE criteria; and

· Strong Engaged Communities - understanding the learning expectations
of families and whânau and the wider community; and supporting
families, whânau and communities to work together with ECE centres and
schools to best support and strengthen their children's learning along
with other agencies and organisations involved with children's
wellbeing;

I'd like to share with you two communities who we're now going to
visit, and look how they connect learning.

The first of these examples of personalising learning which highlights
a number of these components is what happens in A'oga Fa'a Samoa in
Auckland. It was the first licensed Samoan-language ECE centre in New
Zealand. Established 20 years ago, it is still the only licensed
Samoan centre connected to a primary school that has a Samoan-language
programme.

They implement Te Whâriki within a Samoan language immersion
environment. Another Centre of Innovation, they looked at what helps
learning and Samoan language continuity as the children make
transitions within and from A'oga Fa'a Samoa and how research findings
about bilingualism and secure attachment can be implemented. As the
supervisor / manager says "All I know is that we will never stand
still."

Let's look at how they involve their community in their centre.

Now let's visit our friends in Glen Innes. Te Kohanga Reo o Puau Te
Moananui a Kiwa, another COI, works within Mâtauranga Mâori to help
develop te reo. Their research questions included what changes will
enhance te reo Maori learning; what changes will contribute to
strengthening Mâori identity; and what will prepare mokopuna for
success in their life's journey? This work recognises the pivotal
importance of language in strengthening identity and supporting
achievement for mokopuna and their whânau. It brings together the
various worlds of mokopuna.

These are real examples which demonstrate all the connections I've
been talking about and underline that the components of personalising
learning are all a part of the work you are already doing to achieve
the goals of the ECE Strategic Plan.

High Quality services

To make a difference to children's learning, early childhood education
needs to be good quality.

A particular focus through the strategic plan has been ensuring that
quality ECE provision is directly linked to quality teachers, with the
tools at their fingertips to support effective teaching and learning.

We all acknowledge the central importance of quality teaching in ECE.

Qualified teachers

To strengthen the early childhood sector, we decided we needed all
early childhood teachers to meet a minimum professional standard.

I applaud your sector for leading the move towards teacher
registration and for your efforts in getting more teachers qualified
and registered. At July 2006, 56% of all early childhood teachers in
education and care services were qualified and registered; compared
with 39% in 2004 - this is a tremendous achievement! I urge you to
keep up your efforts so that all services will have at least 50% of
staff qualified by the end of this year.

Diversity

At the same time, it is important that we have a diverse range of
people who come from all walks of life to teach our children. It is
pleasing to know that there have been steady increases in early
childhood teachers from Mâori and Pasifika backgrounds.

I know many of you are concerned about the low proportions of men
working as early childhood teachers, and that more men in early
childhood teaching would improve the balance of educational experience
for children. It's a challenge for us all.

Some of you may have read the story about Ray Margrain in the Sunday
Star Times on 4 March. Ray enjoyed being a stay-at-home dad so much
that he decided the next step was a career in ECE. He'd been an
electrical technician for 27 years before he decided ECE was for him.
Ray did his diploma in ECE and says he's found his "passion". The
article notes too that "a couple of the boys [at his centre] have told
me they want to be teachers too - it's great that they see it as an
option."

You'll be interested to know that TeachNZ are currently developing
promotional material to get more men into ECE teaching. Samples of the
work to date will be available at this conference.

Assessment and Curriculum

Effective teaching depends in part on the tools that are available to
support qualified teachers. It's about bringing together experience,
assessment resources and curriculum to create learning opportunities
to meet the needs of diverse learners.

I am pleased that the ECE sector continues to lead initiatives to
improve the quality of teaching and learning practices in your
services. I have heard that most services are engaged in Kei Tua o te
Pae: Early Childhood Exemplars, and the professional development that
is running alongside them. Professional development providers are
already reporting that teachers are using the exemplars to strengthen
their responsiveness to children's interests and strengths.

Increasing participation

For all New Zealand families to be able to participate in and prosper
from the knowledge society, we must ensure that no child misses out on
the opportunity to participate in quality early childhood services.

A key strength of early childhood education is that quality in
teaching and learning happens across a diverse range of services. I
appreciate the services you provide in your communities. Many of you
have built these services up from the beginning and it's testimony to
you that you have continued to focus on what your communities need and
what your children need, at the same time.

We have made huge gains in participation since the introduction of the
Strategic Plan. It's good to see that more Mâori and Pasifika children
are now participating in early childhood education. For example, 90%
of Mâori tamariki starting school in 2006 had participated in early
childhood education, compared with 86% in 2002.

In 2006, 84% of Pasifika schools entrants had participated in early
childhood education, up from 79% in 2002.

Despite these gains, there are still groups missing out on early
childhood education. Did you know that children who enter decile 1
schools are ten times less likely to have attended early childhood
education than a child who enters a decile 10 school?

The Promoting Participation Project is one of the ways we are working
to ensure that children from these families have the opportunity to
participate in quality early childhood education.

In Pukekohe a promoting participation project identified children
where there was no available licensed ECE service available. A
playgroup was set up and then the community worked together to develop
and open an ECE service licensed for 50 families.

20 Hours Free

Lifting the numbers of children participating in early education is
important, and we need to ensure that children get the maximum
benefits from participation. Research tells us that participation in
education needs to be regular and sustained to make a difference.

20 Hours Free ECE is one way of encouraging parents to increase their
children's participation, give more New Zealanders a good start in
life and give parents greater choice about caring, living and working.

I met with your representatives on Monday to discuss how Free ECE was
working. I have been impressed with your executive's determination to
represent your concerns, and make this policy work for children and
families. This kind of constructive dialogue is what will make a
difference.

When looking at offering Free ECE you need consider how you currently
offer your services, the patterns of children's participation and
income for Free ECE hours, and discuss with parents the additional
services you provide.

We are not telling you how to do this - this is your decision to make
as the owner of your services. Neither the ministry nor I will be
expecting to see unreasonable increases in fees after Free ECE begins,
and the ministry will be monitoring fees and will be advising
government of any considerable increases.

As we are so close to rolling out Free ECE it would be irresponsible
to make changes to the policy at this stage. Some of you have
expressed concerns about the funding rates.

The Free ECE rates have been set to cover 100% of the average cost of
providing early childhood education to the regulated standards. The
rates are based on actual operational costs that all services were
asked to provide, they are reliable and accurate.

For those of you who provide additional services, the rates may not
cover all costs. You have the flexibility to talk to your parents
about donations or Optional Charges. Just a reminder too, that if a
parent agrees to an Optional Charge, the services can enforce payment,
just like you do now with your fees.

Many parents who have been contacting me are saying they are happy to
contribute to the cost of their child's education. I'm encouraging
parents to talk with their services, to let them know that they are
happy to commit to contributing in this way. You need to have the
conversation with your parents so you can agree the best way of
offering Free ECE that works for your parents and your service.

I also want to stress the importance of attending the Ministry of
Education training which is happening now until the end of May. The
ministry is keen to work with you and want to support you as much as
possible, so please do talk to them if you have any questions or need
more advice. After attending the workshops, 90 per cent of services
said they had enough information to clearly understand the policy, and
90 per cent also felt confident they knew the steps required to offer
it.

We'd all agree that quality early childhood education helps children
develop a foundation for successful life-long learning. Free ECE is
one way of encouraging parents increase their children's participation
in quality ECE, will give more New Zealanders a good start in life and
will give parents greater choice about their children's regular
involvement in ECE.

Building collaborative relationships

We know that parent and whânau participation is essential to improving
learning outcomes for children. We need to be able to work together -
services, parents, agencies and community groups. Personalising
learning identifies the need to understand the learning expectations
of families, whânau and the wider community, and the challenge of
developing stronger networks for learning with all the stakeholders
involved with children's wellbeing.

Whenever teachers can link the learning a child is doing in the ECE
service with learning that the child has done at home and with their
family they are achieving both strengthened learning for the child and
learning that is connected to the world of the child and their family.

I am really keen to hear about some of the ways that your services are
working to link and to strengthen the connections between learning at
home and learning at the ECE service. Have a think about this and
we'll come back to it in a moment.

Another example is one of our Centres of Innovation, here in
Christchurch, where the New Beginnings Pre-School takes a pro-active
approach in working with Te Whâriki. Children are trusted to make
decisions about their own learning. They learn about things that are
relevant and meaningful to them and the lives of their families and
whânau.

I'd now welcome your comments about some of the ways that your
services are working to link and to strengthen the connections between
learning at home and learning at the ECE service.

Thanks for your comments - it's great to hear so many positive examples.

Another creative way of involving families at a distance is through
the use of Information and Communications Technologies or ICT. ICT is
a way we can push the boundaries of our kids' (and parents') learning
and prepare them for the information and knowledge society.

One of the first centres of innovation, in the COI programme,
Auckland's Roskill South Kindergarten, provides an excellent example
of the innovative use of ICT to enhance early childhood learning and
development. Here, digital cameras, computers, and video have been
used in the kindergarten's programme to allow children to use the
technology and take charge of their own learning and involve their
families in what they are doing.

Conclusion - Vision for ECE

As adults charged with the future of our children we are faced with
great responsibility. In the critical early years of children's
learning New Zealand can continue to be at the vanguard of
transforming to a knowledge society. To lead the world we must all be
able to change

The ECE sector is already contributing to the transformation of our
economy, through starting our children on the path of learning to
learn, stimulating creativity, questioning and problem solving.

We need to recapture the ability that we had as children to dream
without limits about the future. We need to dare to follow our dreams
and the realities of our children. We need to recapture that spirit of
adventure, when each new thing we learn is like gleefully tearing open
an unexpected present.

Thanks for having me.

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