Socred pledges pre-school conference

Press, 10 November 1981, Page 15

Socred pledges pre-school conference

A Social Credit government would call a conference to rationalise the present number of pre-school centres, the Social Credit spokesman on education, Mr R. R. Bach, has said. - Addressing a meeting of local authority community workers in Christchurch, Mr Bach said that kindergartens, play centres, and child care centres were the three main pre-school facilities, and that standards of training for supervisors and funding varied. Child care centres were "really just swept-up babysitting factories,” he said. All the pre-school organisations appeared to have different approaches to their children. They were probably all well intentioned, but New Zealand could not afford the risk of being wrong where children's futures were involved. - It was “scandalous” that

little use had been made of research on Maori and disadvantaged pre-school children, said Mr Bach, who is candidate for the Sydenham electorate. Inadequate preparation for formal schooling could lead to years of partial or complete failure. A recent analysis of School Certificate results showed that only 25 per cent of Maori and Polynesian males and 35 per cent of Maori and Polynesian females passed the English examination. In 10 years time, when half the school population would be Maori and Polynesian, New Zealand would face a high illiteracy rate. There was a close relation between delinquency and illiteracy. Education including preschool education, was Social Credit’s first priority in spending. Child care centres would play a full part in the work of other pre-school centres, said Mr Bach.