13 Apr 2012

More pre-school help wanted for poor families

2:50 pm on 13 April 2012

Education groups want the Government to increase its efforts to give more children from poor families access to early childhood education.

They say Government programmes are helping, but they are barely keeping up with demand, especially in South Auckland where the population is growing fast.

The groups say it takes too long to set up new early childhood centres and the Government should work with community groups which can quickly set up initiatives like playgroups.

Some also want the Government to change its funding system so children from poor families get more funding than children from well-off families.

More can be heard on Radio New Zealand's Insight programme on Sunday.