Sharing New Methods

Early childhood care and education expert Professor Linda Mitchell from the University of Waikato has been in Dublin discussing New Zealand’s fully integrated, and bicultural, early childhood education services. In 1986, New Zealand became only the second country in the world, after Iceland, to integrate early childhood education services into its ministry of education. “This changed a divided system, where childcare was seen as social welfare for the needy, to an education service,” Mitchell explains. The national strategy, “Pathways to the Future” (2002-2012) followed. “It saw very much the importance of the relationship with parents and families, as well as good transitions to schools and good links between the health and social service sector and the education sector.”