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A support group for early childhood teachers is gathering evidence of what teachers say are traumatic and horrific experiences at a small number of early childhood services.
The Teachers Advocacy Group, a support network run by teacher Susan Bates, has been told of bullying, racism, and breaches of regulations designed to protect children's health and safety.
Bates said teachers had described centres that had poor or no resources, unsupervised children and stressed babies.
There were also consistent descriptions of centre managers or owners who screamed and yelled at staff and children, manhandled children, or were blatantly racist towards any family that was not Pākehā.
"Parents and whānau really have no idea what their children are experiencing when they drop them off," one teacher said in a statement shared with RNZ.
Bates told RNZ she was focusing on centres that had been the subject of repeated criticism in messages to the Teachers Advocacy Group.
"In one case there's 30 teachers that have come to me over a period of five years. When all these teachers are saying the same things, we know what's going on. It's who do we tell and what will happen," she said.
One of the complainants, teacher Helen van der Merwe, told RNZ high-quality early childhood centres were few and far between and it had taken years for her to find one that she was happy to work in.
"You'll have teachers in spaces with way more children than what they can actually legally function with, so there's a lot of injuries that come with it. You have really, really just burnt out teachers and children that are not being catered [for] and supported," she said.
She said she complained to the Teachers Advocacy Group about a particular centre where the manager was rough with children at sleep time and doors to the outside play area were often locked, which resulted in children wetting themselves if they could not find a teacher to let them inside to use the toilet.
Van der Merwe said she left the centre after a year because she could not stand it and later tried to complain to the Teaching Council because the experience weighed so heavily on her conscience.
"I have tried to make some complaints and I have been discouraged to go further because the evidence that I had wasn't sufficient, wasn't as robust as they would have liked it. And they've also said it would be a very, very big process to go through and it won't be conducive to my wellbeing, my mental wellbeing," she said.
Another teacher, who asked not be named, told RNZ the Teaching Council and Education Ministry should go undercover to gather evidence of poor practice.
"It would be good if someone could do a spontaneous check or go undercover as a reliever because then you get a true feel for how things are really done. Because a show is put on when ERO comes or the ministry."
The teacher was one of several who told the advocacy group about a centre where they said the manager was racist, insisted on leaving babies to cry and repeatedly left teachers alone with more children than the legal ratio.
A teacher who worked at that centre told the advocacy group in a written statement that working there was traumatic.
"I resigned after months of bullying, unsafe practicing, illegal ratios, being blamed for the downfall of the centre and being brushed off when I asked about my mentoring and registration expectations," she said.
"I was told to send through an email with all of my concerns, I am really hoping this helps the children left at [redacted] childcare. I whole heartedly believe they are not being cared for properly and somebody needs to advocate for them."
Bates said few teachers made formal complaints because they were worried they would lose their jobs and they had little confidence the Education Ministry or Education Review Office would investigate effectively and take action.
In one case a group of teachers had complained about a centre, but were dismissed as "disgruntled employees", she said.
"Several teachers went to the ministry for example, their concerns were dismissed, so that manager or owner continues to run her centre really badly and put children at risk. So there's a big hole between what teachers know is going on, what teachers can do about it, and the relationship with the ministries that are supposed to be responsible and monitoring."
Bates said she was not surprised a centre manager had mistreated children for years before the Teachers' Disciplinary Tribunal deregistered her last week.
Many of the complaints made to the Teachers Advocacy Group concerned bullying and bad employment practices, which were not in the Education Ministry's jurisdiction, she said.
But she said high staff turnover was bad for the wellbeing of children in a centre.
She said the ministry often told teachers to take their complaints to their manager in the first instance, but that was no help when the manager was the problem.
The ministry told RNZ it accepted complaints directly from teachers if they believed they would not be resolved by their centre.
"We can receive anonymous complaints, or protected disclosures, if necessary," it said.
"Parents and whānau who want to complain about an early learning service are encouraged to follow the service's complaints procedure in the first instance. Most complaints are resolved this way and do not require ministry intervention."
"Any person with a concern about imminent risk to the health, safety or wellbeing of a child should follow the services Child Protection procedures and contact the police or Oranga Tamariki if appropriate."
Bates said she would send the ministry summaries of the information she had collected.