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Some parents may be unable to get free early childhood education hours for their children - as promised by Labour before last year's election - if centres decide it's not worth their while.
The government plans to roll out 20 hours' free early childhood education from July, but many providers are taking a "wait and see approach" until funding subsidies are revealed next month.
Kidicorp's chief financial officer Bruce Woodward said his company - the largest private provider of early childhood services in the country - had not decided whether to offer free hours.
"We don't know if the funding will meet the cost of providing the free hours, particularly for operations such as ours that have an expectation of a return on investment."
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A spokesman for Education Minister Steve Maharey said centres offering free hours would receive higher funding for those free hours than the current bulk funding subsidy.
Providers will not be able to charge fees for the free hours but they can continue to ask parents for donations for "extra services".
Meanwhile, the government has delayed the deadline for all centres to have 50% of teachers registered. The policy was supposed to kick in next month but will now be introduced at the end of 2007 because of a teacher shortage in the industry.
Worst affected is Auckland, which needs 261 more registered teachers. The Wellington region needs another 81. Nelson is the only region where all providers have already reached the target.
Kindergartens, which already have 100% qualified teachers, are also likely to be affected by increased competition for staff.
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- reprinted from the Sunday Star Times