41222 (2026). Hon Jan Tinetti to the Associate Minister of Education

Written Question

Published date: 02 Oct 2026

Metadata

Document type:	Written Question
Parliament number:	54
Question number:	41222 (2026)
Question asked:	17 Sep 2026
Member asking:	Hon Jan Tinetti
Portfolio:	Associate Minister of Education
Minister replying:	Hon David Seymour
Answer received:	28 Sep 2026
Status:	Question Answered
Reply type:	Reply
Document ID:	WQ_41222_2026
Document guid:	2e39b1bb-13e4-434a-b0d0-8fc6eabe2ee6

41222 (2026). Hon Jan Tinetti to the Associate Minister of Education: What data, if any, is recorded by the Ministry of Education regarding the amount of teachers in Early Childhood Education centres who hold a current practicing certificate?

Hon David Seymour: Early Childhood Education (ECE) staffing is published annually on Education Counts at https://www.educationcounts.govt.nz/publications/ECE/annual-early-childhood-education-census. In 2025, there were 33,712 teaching staff (qualified and unqualified) at licensed early childhood services. This was a 1 percent increase from 33,297 teaching staff in 2024. The number of qualified teachers increased by 2 percent from 23,687 to 24,167. The number of unqualified teachers decreased by 0.7 percent from 9,610 to 9,545. In 2025, 28.3 percent of ECE teaching staff were unqualified. This is also my response to written parliamentary question 41223 (2026).