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Speaker 1: New numbers this morning from the early childhood sector on

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Speaker 1: staffing levels and qualifications. Almost one and three in the

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Speaker 1: sector are unqualified, so that means about nine five hundred

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Speaker 1: and forty five out of thirty three thy seven hundred

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Speaker 1: and twelve. Not a lot has changed in the past

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Speaker 1: five years. So do we have an issue here? David

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Speaker 1: Seemore was the Associate Minister of Education, of course, and

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Speaker 1: is with us good morning, Good morning mate. Is there

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Speaker 1: supposed to be a path or a plan for more

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Speaker 1: qualifications in eSEE?

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Speaker 2: Well, there is that. Actually in the last year since

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Speaker 2: we've been in government, the number of teachers with a

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Speaker 2: formal qualification has increased. So I see this criticism coming

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Speaker 2: from a business that basically sells teacher qualification. So I

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Speaker 2: can understand why they'd want to do that, and we

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Speaker 2: shouldn't dismiss their concerns out of hand because of that.

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Speaker 2: But I'd like to reassure parents that an actual fact,

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Speaker 2: the situation hasn't changed much in five years, and an

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Speaker 2: actual fact, in the last year since we've been in

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Speaker 2: government it's improved lately.

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Speaker 1: Whe a pathway to improving further or not well.

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Speaker 2: One of the major issues that has been reported is

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Speaker 2: frustration that early childhood teachers have with red tape and regulation.

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Speaker 2: That's one ball that we've really taken by the horns.

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Speaker 2: We're changing up the licensing criteria, we're changing the regulator,

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Speaker 2: and we're changing the rules for regulating, so it's much

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Speaker 2: more collaborative and supportive rather than this really sort of

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Speaker 2: black and white brinkmanship that's put a lot of stress

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Speaker 2: on the sector without improving quality. So we are fixing

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Speaker 2: one of the major challenges that early childhood that even

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Speaker 2: the unions actually have told us they have.

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Speaker 1: It's also noted in this morning's coverage that there's one

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Speaker 1: hundred and eighty jobs, as though that's the thing. If

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Speaker 1: there's thirty three, seven hundred and twelve people in the

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Speaker 1: sector and there's hundred eighty jobs, it's not a thing,

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Speaker 1: is it. I mean, that's hardly any jobs.

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Speaker 2: Well, we got asked by Labor in Parliament last week

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Speaker 2: about the number of advertisements for primary school teachers and

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Speaker 2: I just said to them, well, what's the right number.

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Speaker 2: I mean, I'd be very worried if there were no

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Speaker 2: jobs going in education. They didn't seem to like the

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Speaker 2: number we had, which was four hundred and eighty something.

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Speaker 2: So when people make this point, I just say, look,

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Speaker 2: of course there's always going to be job openings in

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Speaker 2: any sector and that's probably a good thing.

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Speaker 1: Indeed, I appreciate it. David Seemore, Associate Minister of Education.

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