Thousands protest in march through city | Bay of Plenty News | Local News in Bay of Plenty

Downtown Tauranga was bustling with activity on Saturday as thousands of people protested the Government's plans to cut funding to early childhood centres.

About 2000 people walked from the Holy Trinity Church on Devonport Rd to Mid City Mall, forcing the road to temporarily close to motorists.

Young and old took part in the peaceful protest.

Mike Shorter and his wife Sarah both disagreed with the Government's plan.

"We are both primary school teachers and I think this will be a huge blow to our education system.

"To be a teacher, everyone has to be qualified so why not in the early childhood sector. This will be a huge disadvantage for sure," Mr Shorter said.

Mrs Shorter agreed.

"There's a cost involved and it will be huge. This will affect so many people and will limit the quality of education our kids can have," she said.

Mrs Shorter said a child's early education was very important.

"These kids are our future and how will they learn if they are not being taught properly?

"You definitely wouldn't want to send your kids to a place where staff weren't qualified - that wouldn't even be an option to me."

Parent Nina Smith thought cutting funds to early childhood education was ludicrous.

"It's the young ones that are going to suffer.

"I know because my son has been in a number of daycares and being around qualified teachers makes a huge difference.

"The quality of the teaching, how well they learn and the happiness of the child, it's all related," she said.

The march finished in Mid City Mall where event organisers addressed the group. Matua Plunket Kindergarten manager Tracy Giacon said it was "such a worthy campaign" and she was "delighted to see such a strong response".