Protesters are gathering around Tauranga today for the Early Childhood Education Day of Action.

Teachers and staff are holding a national day of action to call on the new government to put tamariki/children first by prioritising improvements to the ECE sector.

The government has signalled their clear intention to scrap the ECE Fair Pay Agreements by Christmas, says protest organiser Andrea Andresen.

The government is not committed to continuing the work on full parity, says Andrea.

A regulation review is proposed but teachers fear that it will further erode workers’ rights and conditions, she says.

“There has been a report come out from a survey of the employees in the ECE and the key issues that have been identified as concerns or things that would make early childhood education better.

“The purpose of today is to try and raise awareness of those issues with the public and getting the message out to our MPs.

“We’ve got a whole lot of new MPs in the system. Those banners and things will be given to the MPs afterwards once their officers are open.

“There’s so much research that says that the first 1000 days of a child’s life are critical to what their life chances are as they’re going into adulthood.”

Protesters are asking for three key aspects for the government to deliver on, as well as better child ratios and staffing levels.

“There’s a push to lower the ratios with under twos, down to one to four and instead one to five.”

Protesters are asking for pay parity for all early childhood education teachers, and for teachers to be better valued as the teachers of our youngest learners.

“At the moment, there's been a big push from Australia. In fact, I've heard two advertisements on the radio in the last six months when I've been in my car from Melbourne trying to entice our early childhood educators to move to Melbourne with expensive pays and all the rest of that.

“I was talking to a teacher recently who was saying that - with his three year degree and student loan to show for it – is earning less than his son who's working in the kiwi fruit industry. It makes them wonder why he's done it.

Protestors are asking for a funding system to be in place to support equity across ECE to fix funding to deliver high quality early learning and retain a stable workforce.

Ultimately the protestors have gathered, feeling fed up, to raise awareness of the new government’s clear intention to scrap a Fair Pay Agreement for ECE and to fund already privileged groups, such as landlords, over ECE teachers, while many teachers are no closer to receiving funding for full pay parity.

There are three sites across Tauranga where protest are being held, a site by Holy Trinity Cathedral in the city, one on Domain Road in Pāpāmoa and another on Minden Road in Te Puna.

SunLive has reached out to the govenment for comment and will provide an update when possible.