There are fears the standard of early childhood education could drop, as the sector continues to rely on thousands of unqualified staff.

New Ministry of Education data shows 33,712 teaching staff were employed in the sector last year, but only 24,167 held a formal qualification.

The just over nine-and-a-half thousand who were unqualified last year is almost double 2011’s figures, but similar to the last five years.

The figures also reveal that more than half of teaching staff are aged between 31 and 50.

But it’s the older teachers who are more likely to be qualified, while 82% of those without qualifications are under 50.

Te Rito Maioha Early Childhood New Zealand CEO Kathy Wolfe warns that having unqualified staff in front of children increases the risk of lower-quality learning.

“There’s weaker oversight, inconsistent care and lack of development of children’s education,” she said.

“So if you’ve got too many unqualified staff, they’re less prepared to recognise developmental needs and they don’t have the experience to plan and deliver age-appropriate learning.”

Wolfe also believes more unqualified staff will mean accidents “will go through the roof”.

A nationwide teaching shortage is also hitting early childhood education (ECE), with the Education Gazette showing 181 vacancies in the sector currently – 110 of these just for certified teachers.

NZEI Te Riu Roa’s workforce report last year found a third of ECE teachers frequently considered leaving the sector in the past six months.

Seventy-nine percent said the current teacher-child ratios don’t meet health and safety standards.

Wolfe said the Government’s chronic underfunding of the sector is making these problems worse.

“So services have significant shortfalls, and the only place they’ve got to go is parent fees. And so then you’ve got an affordability issue and then you’ve got the domino effect: ‘I can’t afford it, I can’t send my child.’”

Associate Education Minister David Seymour told Newstalk ZB’s Mike Hosking in the last year the number of teachers with qualifications increased.

“I see this criticism coming from a business that basically sells teacher qualifications. I can understand why they’d want to do that and we shouldn’t dismiss their concerns out of hand because of that,” he said.

“But I’d like to reassure parents that in actual fact the situation hasn’t changed much in 5 years.”

The Government’s currently planning major changes to early childhood education regulations, aiming to reduce red tape.

Seymour has called many of the 98 licensing rules “outdated” and overly strict.

He said one of the major issues that frustrates teachers is the red tape and regulation.

“That’s one bull that we’ve really taken by the horns,” he said.

Wolfe said these changes need to focus on quality in early childhood – and that means qualified, registered and certificated teachers.

“Our child ratios and group sizes need to be adequate.”

“It’s about strong relations with tamariki [children] and, and their families, safe, well-supervised learning environments, ongoing professional learning and even mentoring is a very key thing for our teachers.

“And then obviously, the Government has to provide adequate and sustainable investment into early childhood.”

Wolfe added there needs to be a bigger focus on supporting young workers in the sector, to reduce the high numbers of unqualified staff.

“And what we would like to see is that those younger people who come into teaching environments, that they have clear, accessible pathways into becoming qualified teachers.

“So if there’s someone coming into a service, who wants to become a teacher, there needs to be a timeframe to make sure that person becomes qualified.”

Jaime Cunningham is a Christchurch-based reporter with a focus on education, social issues and general news. She joined Newstalk ZB in 2023 after working as a sports reporter at the Christchurch Star.