For far too long our hard-working early childhood education (ECE) teachers have been underpaid, undervalued, and they were left behind. Teachers with the same qualification carrying out the same work do not get paid equally. This pushed our teachers to look for jobs somewhere else. They've been leaving the country in an exodus, therefore many ECE centres have been struggling to either retain their existing teachers or to recruit new ones. This also has been affecting our children, who deserve high-quality care with the consistent and secure relationships that they need at the very early stage of their lives.