New Zealand's Ministry of Education has announced a policy that will provide 20 hours free education per week for three- and four-year-olds, as part of its Centres of Innovation program.
Free access to early childhood education
The policy will allow up to 92,000 three- and four-year-old children in New Zealand to access 20 hours per week of free early childhood education. The free care will be available from 1 July 2007.
New Zealand's policy appears shortly after the Australian Labor Party's announcement that, if it wins the 2007 Federal election, it will provide 15 hours per week free access to pre-school education for all four-year-olds.
Read the news item: Jan 2007 - Federal Opposition unveils new early childhood education initiative.
New Zealand's early childhood education
The Centres of Innovation program is part of New Zealand's 10-year early childhood education strategic plan which was established to improve quality, participation and collaboration. During the first round of the program, the New Zealand Government funded six early childhood education services to research and trial innovative teaching and learning methods, in order to find ways to improve outcomes for children.
New education resources
The New Zealand Minister for Education spoke at the Early Childhood Education Symposium in Wellington, announcing that a book and DVD, based on the first round of research in the Centres of Innovation program, would be made available across the New Zealand sector and also internationally.
The Riding the waves book and Centres of Innovation Nga Mahi Auaha DVD were presented shortly after the Minister announced that 10 more early childhood education services would participate in the Centres of Innovation program's second round of research.
According to the Minister:
'Improving the quality of ECE is a key goal of our 10 year strategic plan, and the resources from this programme make sure we build on the success so far, and share and promote successful outcomes with other providers.'
The book and DVD will be distributed to New Zealand early childhood education organisations and providers through May 2007.
Read Scoop's ‘Success of ECE Centres of Innovation'.
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