• Participation in early childhood education
• School leavers with higher qualifications
• Educational attainment of the adult population
• Adult literacy skills in English
• Participation in tertiary education

Participation in early childhood education

Relevance

Evidence from New Zealand and international research shows that the early years of childhood are vital to a child’s development and future ability to learn.³⁸ Quality early childhood programmes prepare young children socially, physically and academically for entry into primary education and can help narrow the achievement gap between children from low-income families and those from more advantaged families.

Current level and trends

As at 1 July 2004, the "apparent" early childhood education participation rate was 95 percent for 3 year olds and 103 percent for 4 year olds, confirming that some children attend more than one service. These figures represent a substantial increase from 43 percent and 73 percent respectively in 1986. Much of the growth in participation in early childhood education occurred in the five years between 1986 and 1991, with slower growth in subsequent years.

Figure K1.1 Early childhood education "apparent" participation rate, 3 and 4 year olds, 1986–2004

Source: Ministry of Education; Ministry of Social Development
Note: These figures overestimate the true participation rate. Rates in excess of 100 percent are possible because children can be enrolled in more than one service

A new measure of early childhood education participation, which avoids the problem of double-counting, comes from information collected when children are in Year One at school. This shows that, as at July 2004, 94 percent of all Year One students had attended some form of early childhood education service before starting school. This compares with 91 percent of Year One students in 2000.

Ethnic Differences

There are marked ethnic differences in the proportion of Year One students who had attended an early childhood education service, with European students being the most likely to have attended: 98 percent compared with 89 percent of Māori and 85 percent of Pacific Year One students in 2004. However the gap in participation rates has narrowed in recent years.

Table K1.1 Early childhood education attendance by Year One students, by ethnic group, as at 1 July 2000–2004

Source: Ministry of Education
Note: These figures exclude cases for which attendance was unknown and differ from those published in The Social Report 2003

Participation by type of early childhood education service

In 2004, childcare centres (40 percent) and kindergartens (39 percent) catered for the largest group of enrolments of 3 and 4 year olds in early childhood education. Much smaller proportions were enrolled in play centres (6 percent) and kōhanga reo (5 percent).