Three new early childhood centres for South Auckland

Three new early childhood education centres are to be built in Manukau, Education Minister Anne Tolley announced today.

The three are the first to be funded through the Education Ministry's Counties Manukau Participation Project targeting areas with traditionally low uptake of early childhood education.

It is expected that more centres will be established in South Auckland. $5 million has been budgeted for early childhood building projects in Counties Manukau in 2009/10.

The first approved sites are at Mansell Senior School in Papakura, Weymouth Primary in Manurewa and Homai Primary in Manurewa.

"One of the Government's top education priorities is ensuring that every child can take part in high-quality early childhood education," Mrs Tolley said. "New Zealand's early childhood participation rates are high overall by international standards, but some groups have low participation, including Maori, Pasifika, and those from low socio-economic backgrounds."

The Counties Manukau Participation Project brings communities, local and central government together to find solutions, Mrs Tolley said.

"Increasing participation is not just about the number of spaces available - it's also about providing services that suit their communities, and about encouraging families and wh
nau to use those services.

"The new centres will be established at schools that have offered to host them. This is a community-base approach - the previous Labour Government had told some schools to set up centres when they had no desire to do so," Mrs Tolley said.

The Ministry of Education will be working with Boards of Trustees to develop the sites and select providers for the services. Work is expected to start within the next three months.