Playcentre www.playcentre.org.nz is a parent-run co-operative which provides early childhood education. It is indigenous to New Zealand and has provided a significant share of ECE service in NZ. However, to date Playcentre has been excluded from sharing in the funding the government makes available to teacher-led ECE providers. The reason given is that Playcentre does not charge high enough prices to parents. So therefore they cannot access the subsidies made available to other ECE service providers. Very odd given that the purpose of the subsidies is to reduce the price parents have to pay.
Playcentres have trained parents leading ECE sessions. They are NZQA qualified. So poor quality cannot be the issue. So why the discrimination? Maybe they just don't fit the funding formula that the Ministry of Education likes to work with? Maybe the parents running playcentres are not union members? In any case in a smart piece of political tactics the National party recently announced that it would bring Playcentres into the mainstream of ECE funding. The question now is whether Labour will at long last do the same?
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