Annual ECE Census 2021: Fact Sheets Publications
Publication Details
These fact sheets summarise the results from the June 2021 Annual Census of ECE services. They provide snapshots of a sector-wide statistical summary of key aspects of the early childhood education sector.
Author(s): Evidence Data and Knowledge, Ministry of Education.
Date Published: February 2022
Summary
The Early Childhood Education (ECE) census is administered every year and provides a snapshot of high level statistics for ECE in New Zealand. Data captured is for a one week period, typically the last week in June and includes information about the services, enrolment/attendance numbers, teaching staff, and the use of languages.
The 2021 ECE census week was June 21 to 27.
Key Findings
Attendance
- There were 194,697 children attending licensed early learning services in June 2021
- 70% of children were enrolled at an education & care service in June 2021.
- Early learning attendance has decreased from 201,675 in 2016 to 194,697 in 2021 (a 3% decrease).
- The number of children attending early learning services increased by 2% in 2021 compared to 2020.
- Children younger than 3 year olds had the greatest increase of attendance to early learning services in 2021 compared 2020.1 The percentage of 1 year old increased by six percentage points between 2020 and 2021; while children aged 0 and 2 year increased by three percentage points.*
- The percentage of children attending education & care services increased five percentage points since 2016.
- In 2021, the percentage of children attending kindergartens, home-based services and playcentres decreased compared to 2016.
- The percentage of children attending kōhanga reo has remained stable at 4% since 2016.
Services
- There were 4,652 licensed services in the June 2021 ECE Census.
- 50% of licensed early learning services were education & care services.
- 43% of services reported having a wait list for children aged 2.
- In 2021, occupancy rates decreased for education & care services from 78% in 2020 to 77% in 2021; while for kindergartens occupancy rates remained at 83% and for playcentres occupancy rates increased from 48% to 53%.
- There has been a 2% increase in the number of licensed services since 2016, from 4,541 to 4,652 in 2021.
- The number of education and care services increased from 2,495 in 2016 to 2,736 in 2021 (10% increase).
- The number of kindergartens have also increased from 656 in 2016 to 664 in 2021 (1% increase).
- The number of home-based services, kōhanga reo and playcentres have decreased since 2016.
- Nelson, Wellington and Gisborne have the greatest proportion of services with a waiting list for 2-year-olds (over 60% of services).
- In 2021, the most common waiting period was for more than 1 month and up to 6 months.
- Between 2016 and 2021, the number of services with a waiting list has increased over 34% for children under the age of 2 and between 3% and 7% for older children.
Teaching staff
- There were 32,985 teaching staff (qualified and unqualified) at licensed early learning services reported in June 2021. This is an 8% increase in teaching staff compared with June 2020 (30,476 teaching staff).
- 52% of teaching staff have child contact time of 25 hours per week or more.
- 62% of teaching staff identify as European/Pākehā.
- The number of qualified teachers increased by 6% from 21,836 in 2020 to 23,133 in 2021. However, the proportion of qualified teachers decreased to 70% in 2021 from 72% in 2020, due to the number of unqualified teachers returning to 2019 levels.
- More than half of teachers (53%) working in early learning services are in the age band of 31 to 51 years (17,532 teachers).
- Older teachers are more likely to be qualified than younger teachers.
- Female teachers account for 97% of teaching staff. This has remained unchanged since 2017.
- The percentage of qualified teaching staff decreased for all ethnic groups between 2020 and 2021.
- The percentage of qualified teaching staff who identify as European/Pākehā decreased from 79% in 2020 to 74% in 2021.
- The percentage of qualified teaching staff who identify as Asian decreased from 78% in 2020 to 63% in 2021.
Footnotes
- The percentage of 3 and 4 year olds attending early learning services was calculated using the total population of children by age taken from Stats NZ’s Estimated Resident Population by Age and Sex (1991+) (Annual-Jun).
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