{"id":7955,"date":"2020-12-16T06:29:08","date_gmt":"2020-12-15T18:29:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/oece.nz\/general\/news-for-early-childhood-education\/ece-participation-covid-19\/"},"modified":"2021-07-19T15:54:13","modified_gmt":"2021-07-19T03:54:13","slug":"ece-participation-covid-19","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/oece.nz\/public\/news-and-views\/stories\/ece-participation-covid-19\/","title":{"rendered":"COVID-19’s Effect on Child Participation in ECE"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

December 16, 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This week the Ministry of Education released a report on Covid-19 ECE participation. A copy can be found here<\/a><\/strong>.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It shows that parents and the ECE services from which data was used in the analysis (namely teacher-led centres, playcentres, and home-based ECE) in general followed the rules and did what the government told them to do in respect of ECE usage at each of the COVID-19 Alert Levels. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Participation in these service types was found to have returned to normal levels for most children over Alert Level 1.\"Ministry<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The number of children attending ECE this year marginally decreased because fewer new children have entered.  But overall, the children who were in ECE before the March lockdown have not dropped out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The participation of Pacific and M\u0101ori children was lower due to COVID-19 and participation rates at low EQI services were most affected. Attendance rates for Pasifika children in Auckland<\/strong> took longest to recover compared to Asian, P\u0101keh\u0101 and M\u0101ori children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The report states:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“There is an indication that recovery in participation is taking longer for Pacific and M\u0101ori children, as well as children in low EQI services. These differences are far larger in Auckland than non-Auckland regions, and apply to three- and four-year olds, as well as younger children. This provides ample evidence that the educational effects of this pandemic are not borne equally across society.<\/em>“<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

However, the report then cautions against jumping to conclusions:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Data available at the time of writing do not yet give us a reliable picture of participation in Auckland since the recent transition to Level 1, so it is possible that many of these concerning findings will have already improved.”<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Puzzling is why the Graph does not show a flat weekly attendance rate when all ECE services across the country were compulsorily closed \u2013 from March 26th<\/sup> to April 28th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The report provides no evidence to substantiate its claim that reduced participation due to COVID-19 negatively impact on children\u2019s learning or on their longer-term educational outcomes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To the contrary it could be argued, for example, that:<\/p>\n\n\n\n