UNITY
FUTURE-FIT EDUCATION
The world our children will grow up in will be challenging and complex. Education needs to change with the times to ensure our young people are ready.
No one can tell a five-year-old what job they'll do. School's job is to make sure none of the doors are shut.
To build more adaptability into the education system, Opportunity will:
- Level the playing field between community run Early Childhood Education (ECE) centres and increasingly profitable corporate centres — recognising the role of education within a community setting and the benefits of including parents in teaching and learning.
- Limit the size of ECE centres and introduce more stringent requirements for physical space and educator-to-child ratios.
- Provide additional support to parent-led ECE initiatives like Playcentre and Kōhanga Reo, as well as community-owned ECE centres.
- Require pay parity with primary and secondary teachers for ECE teachers.
- Integrate early childhood education with the early years of primary school.
- Teach civics from Year 6.
- Provide a wide range of learning support options for disabled children.
- Pay qualified teachers well, including for additional duties, and invest in their professional development with accredited programmes and quality mentoring.
- Encourage schools to reduce screen time in classrooms and use screen-based learning as a tool for specific objectives, in line with recent guidance from The Education Hub.
- Support lifelong and flexible learning, including funding for community night schools.
Smaller centres, more room to move, and ECE teachers paid the same as the primary teachers down the corridor.
Civics from Year 6, so a New Zealander turns 18 already knowing how their country works.
