Summary

Key Highlights 2011

There has been a continued increase in the number of children enrolled in licensed ECE services. More children are enrolling for longer hours, and parents are continuing to choose all-day services. The number and proportion of qualified and registered ECE teachers continue to increase.

• There were 5,258 early childhood education services in July 2011, 106 (or 2.0%) more than in July 2010. These included 4,439 licensed early childhood education services and 819 playgroups. The number of licensed services increased by 118 (or 2.7%) since July 2010, while the number of playgroups fell by 12, or 1.4%. Over the last five years, the number of services has been increasing between 2% and 5% each year.
• Enrolments in licensed early childhood education services numbered 194,101 in July 2011, an increase of 2.7% (or 5,177) since 2010, and an increase of 13% (22,963) since 2007.
• Between July 2010 and July 2011, enrolments increased by 4.3% in education and care services, by 5.1% in home-based services, by 0.4% in playcentres, and by 2.8% in kōhanga reo. Enrolments in kindergartens decreased by 1.7% over the same period. There were 21,409 attendances at playgroups, down 4.9% from 22,502 at the same time last year.
• Over the last five years, enrolments in licensed services have been increasing between 2% and 4% each year, 13% in total since 2007. Over this time, there has been a 62% increase in enrolments in home-based services, a 24% increase in education and care services, a 3.1% enrolment increase in playcentres, and a 4.3% increase in kōhanga reo.  Enrolments in kindergartens decreased by 15%.
• Excluding kōhanga reo, Correspondence School and casual education and care services¹, the average number of hours attended per week was 20.4, a 1.5% (or 0.3 hour) increase from last year and a 16% (or 2.8 hours) increase from July 2007. Since increasing strongly from 17.6 in 2007 to 20.1 in 2010, the rate of growth slowed between 2010 and 2011.
• In the year ended June 2011, 94.7% of first year school children had previously participated in ECE, up 0.3 of a percentage point from the previous year. Prior ECE participation rates have been increasing across all ethnic groups, but remain lower for Māori (90.0%) and Pasifika (85.9%) children.
• Of the total number of enrolments in licensed early childhood education services,18% were age one or below, 19% were age two, and 63% were three years or over. While enrolments for four year-olds grew by 4.5% and accounted for more than half of the total increase in enrolments between 2010 and 2011, no age group's share of total enrolments has changed significantly over the last five years.
• Excluding kōhanga reo², there were 103,852 enrolments in 20 Hours ECE at July 2011, or 89% of all enrolments of three to five year-olds in licensed services. This was an increase of 6.1% (or 6,011) since July 2010. Twenty percent of this increase (or 1,213 enrolments) was in playcentres, which became eligible for 20 Hours ECE in July 2010.
• There was a total of 20,644 teachers in teacher-led ECE services in July 2011, up 743 (or 3.7%) from July 2010. Of these, 14,271 (or 69%) were qualified, up by 977 (or two percentage points) from the previous year.
• Sixty-nine percent of teaching staff were full-time, and 31% were part-time. Of these, 10,681 (75%) of the full-time staff were qualified, compared with 3,592 (57%) of the part-time staff.
• There was a total of 18,607 full-time equivalent teaching staff, up by 3% from July 2010.
• The total number of registered teachers has increased by 61% since 2007. From 60% in 2007, the proportion of teachers registered has been increasing by around three percentage points each year to 71% in July 2011.
• Around 51% (or 3,244) of all non-ECE-qualified teachers at teacher-led services were in study for a qualification that leads to New Zealand Teachers Council registration.
• In July 2011, there were 3,511 teacher-led services, up 127 (or 3.8%) from the previous year. Forty-six percent of these services (1,630) had at least 80% qualified teaching staff. This is an increase from 45% in July 2010.
• There were 27,948 teaching and non-teaching staff in total: 20,644 teachers (74% of all staff) and 7,304 non-teaching staff (26% of all staff). Of the non-teaching staff, 4,949 (18%) were support staff, 2,196 (8%) managers³ and 159 (1%) specialists.
• Māori was used as the language of communication for 81% to 100% of teaching contact time in 474 licensed services in 2011, which was up by two services compared with 2010.  It was down by six services when compared with 2007.
• Pasifika language was used as the language of communication for 81% to 100% of teaching contact time in 55 licensed services, higher by four services than in 2007 and 2010 (both with 51 services).
• Excluding kōhanga reo⁴, 88% (or 3,471) of licensed ECE services had internet access at July 2011. Nearly all kindergartens, home-based and education and care services had internet access, compared with 11% for playcentres.

Footnotes

1. The July 2011 Annual Census of ECE services was formerly known as the Annual Census of Children and Staff at Licensed Early Childhood Education (ECE) services and licence-exempt groups.
2. Data on the number of weekly hours attended by children in kōhanga reo, the Correspondence School and casual education and care services is not available.
3. Kōhanga reo data on enrolments in 20 Hours ECEis not available.
4. Managers can include service managers, directors, senior staff, professional leaders, and parent liaison and curriculum planning staff. Specialist staff includes psychologists and physiotherapists.