On Monday, the government announced a set of targets for "better public services". Some of these "targets" are simply unambitious extensions of current trends. Some are pure magical thinking. According to the NZEI, the goal of increasing the ECE participation rate to 98% falls into the latter category:
The Government’s goal of lifting early childhood education rates may be thwarted by a lack of investment in the sector.The core problem? They're cutting funding to most ECE centres, increasing costs to parents - something unlikely to result in higher participation. Again, its a total disconnect between goals and policy. But I guess it would be too much to expect National to actually put their money where their mouth is, rather than simply engaging in PR gimmicks.NZEI Te Riu Roa says the Government should consider lifting the freeze on early childhood education funding if it wants to achieve its goal of increasing participation rates to 98 percent in the next four years.
