Benefits to corporatization include:
A potential benefit to corporatization is the amalgamation of
many small, separately run centres into one, centrally run, operation. Complex and time consuming administration
duties can be centralised and this potentially frees up hours for teachers to
have more quality time with children (King, 2008) . King also mentions that there is potential to
“strengthen the management and governance of these services” as these important
decisions happen from a business level and the burden then does not fall on the
teachers who often have no managerial experience or training (p. 3)
On the negative side:
One study conducted in 2002 documenting the differences
between community-owned and privately-owned early childhood centres, revealed
that privately-owned centres employed significantly less qualified staff than
community-owned centres (Mitchelle as cited in Aitken
& Kennedy, 2007). Statistics in
the same article showed that the private centres employed “the lowest
proportion of qualified staff (35 per cent) and the highest proportion of staff
with no qualification (36 per cent)” (p. 177). Private centres
also paid their staff less than other centres. New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI)
surveyed 22 staff members working for large, for-profit centres and found the
following: children were denied food due to the budget being over; low numbers
of staff with a high percentage of those team members unqualified; and
bicultural agreements and Te Whāriki not understood or implemented by the staff
(NZEI as cited in Blaikie, The rise and rise of corporate childcare, 2014). The implication of poor adult to children
ratios, low numbers of qualified staff, overworked staff, and badly paid team members
leads to very low quality teaching.
The present government seems to be more
concerned about reaching their 98% goal of children’s participation in early
childhood education than the quality of education provided. If more children are in a centre, then
parents are free to go to work and contribute to the economy of the
country. Parata (2015) states “ensuring
each and every child gets a good education is the most important thing our
government can do to raise living standards, and create a more productive and competitive society” (p. 1). Unfortunately
this neo-liberal approach to early childhood education has brought about: a
marked decrease in qualified teachers and managers; an increase to ‘owner-led’
centres as apposed to ‘teacher/child/whanau-led’ centres; a decline in good
teacher to child ratios; and less affordable and accessible education for the
general population. These corporate,
profit-based facilities position the child and their family as the consumer who
are paying for an education. The child
is seen as a commodity. (Betts, 2014) .
Another drawback of a business-model
approach to early childhood centres, is that instead of children, teachers and
whanau making collaborative decisions for their centre, such as the use of
funding, managers and owners, who often do not have early childhood
qualifications, make these decisions on behalf of everyone (Aitken & Kennedy,
2007) . This is a dictatorial approach to education
with little or no collaborative input from the people who are receiving (children and whanau) or implementing (teachers) the service.
Staff at for-profit centers are often
provided with professional development in-house only and are not encouraged to
partake in outside development (Aitken & Kennedy,
2007) . This type of professional development can be
limited and controlled by management thus not allowing for fresh, contemporary ideas the staff may otherwise have picked up from other teachers and centres in
the wider community.
Fascinating article on corporatization of
the early childhood sector Corporate childcare
Conclusion
As you can see, the negatives surrounding
corporitization of the sector far outweigh the positives. According to Aitken and Kennedy (2007) when education is a
service provided to all families for public good, funding from the government
can be describes as “adequate, sustained and beyond party politics” (p.
176). However due to the increased
neo-liberal approach to education, that it is seen as a private responsibility
and not a social one, funding has diminished and allowed large private and
corporate investment into early childhood sector. With only a few pros and many cons, I am
certainly not in favour of this corporate movement into the early childhood
sector, however like it or not, big corporate companies are inevitably changing
the face of early childhood education in Aotearoa.
References
Aitken, H., &
Kennedy, A. (2007). Theorising early childhood practice: Emerging dialogues.
Castle Hill, Australia: Pademelon Press.
BestStart Educare.
(2015). Early childhood education and childcare centres. Retrieved from
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Betts, R. (2014).
Neoliberalism and the 'professional teacher'. Early Education, 56,
22-24.
Blaikie, J. (2014,
October 2). The rise and rise of corporate childcare. Retrieved from
Education Aotearoa: http://www.ea.org.nz/rise-rise-corporate-childcare/
Evolve Education
Group. (2015). Evolve annual resport 2015. Retrieved from Evolve
Education Group: http://www.evolveeducation.co.nz/
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King, J. (2008,
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https://www.educationcounts.govt.nz/publications/ECE/28930/4---findings
May, H. (2002).
Aotearoa-New Zealand: An overview of history, policy and curriculum. McGill
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McLachlan, C. (2011,
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Childhood, 36, 36-44.
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from Education counts:
https://www.educationcounts.govt.nz/indicators/main/student-engagement-participation/1923
Minstry of
Education. (2016, March 23). The number of qualified teachers your ECE
service needs. Retrieved from Education.govt.nz:
http://www.education.govt.nz/early-childhood/running-an-ece-service/employing-ece-staff/the-number-of-qualified-teachers-your-ece-service-needs/
New Zealand
Kindergartens Inc. (2009). History of kindergartens in Aotearoa.
Retrieved from New Zealand Kindergarten Inc: Te putahi kura puhou o Aotearoa:
http://www.nzkindergarten.org.nz/about/history.html
Parata, H. H. (2014,
February). Investment in early childhood education gets results.
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