Response

390 submissions were received on the document Strategic Plan for Early Childhood Education. Initially it appeared that 403 submissions had been received, however it became apparent during checking that this included some duplicates and that the actual number of submissions was 390.

159 (40%[1]) indicated that they were responding as individuals, and 174 (44%) that they were responding as part of a group, with 16% giving no indication. Of the group submissions, two-thirds were from groups that had seven members or less, and six groups had 50 members or more.

230 submissions (59%) were from early childhood educators, 84 (21%) from parents of children under five, and 55 (14%) from managers or owners of an early childhood education service. 70 (17%) were involved in early childhood education in some other way, and 51 (13%) were involved in another aspect of education.

176 submissions (45%) came from people living in cities, 83 (21%) from people living in rural areas and 65 (17%) from people living in towns. The rest gave no indication of their location.

68% of respondents provided details of their ethnic background. 188 (48% of all respondents) were NZ European, 33 (8%) were Maori, 18 (5%) were of Pacific origin, 10 (3%) were Asian, and 19 (5%) were of other ethnicity. It seems that some of those who were responding as part of a group may have had difficulty answering this question.