The New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) plans to launch a nationwide petition next week calling on the Government to reverse funding cuts to early childhood education.
The cuts, which are due to come into force on Tuesday, were announced in last year's budget and saw funding for early childhood education reduced by $285 million, NZEI media officer Liz Brown said.
"The cuts mean the majority of services which are losing funding are putting up their fees, while others are being forced to consider losing or reducing their numbers of qualified staff," she said.
"All the evidence shows that investment in the early years is the most important but New Zealand currently spends less than the OECD average on early childhood education."
Ms Brown said the petition would call for the funding cuts to be reversed and for the Government to invest 1 percent of GDP on early childhood education.
