In June 2013 ChildForum wrote to the NZ Education Minister explaining why it is important for children, the ECE profession, and our society for men to be represented in early childhood teaching work and asking if she had been advised of the continuing problem and what actions Government may be planning to put into place to address this.

Two months later a reply was received. The reply indicates the Minister does not see a place for gender equality on the ECE policy agenda. Government is focused only on getting greater numbers of children into ECE, the Minister says (and she further believes that changing the name of publicly funded professional development and ECE service support to SELO and targeting this to geographical areas with lower rates of child enrolment in ECE will alone produce high quality ECE).

Click on link to read copies of both letters. : http://www.childforum.com/men-in-ece/campaign-for-men-in-ece-blog.html