As the number of children attending preschool continues to rise, statistics show Tauranga has already met the Government's future Early Childhood Education goal.

Data from 2012 shows 98.1 per cent of Tauranga children who started school during 2012 had participated in early childhood education – just more than the Government's national target for 2016 of 98 per cent.

Paras Motsara,2, Samuel Kendrick,4, Miriama Bin,3, Leigh Gallagher,Preschool teacher, Liam Taia,4, Paige Shannon,4, Mailee Myers-Kay,3, at preschool.

Tauranga MP Simon Bridges this week praised the news Tauranga is fully involved in the preschool scene – saying he hopes the rest of the nation will follow suit.

'We want all children to get the best possible start to their education, and early childhood education helps children become confident, ready to engage, and eager to learn.”

The Government is investing $1.4billion in ECE, which includes 20 hours' ECE funding for all families. In the last Budget an additional $48 million in equity funding which supports priority learners, vulnerable children, and communities who would otherwise find it more difficult to access ECE was invested.

SunLive found some Tauranga preschools are now so busy they now have waiting lists.

Mount Plunket Preschool manager Sandie Jacobs says there is currently a six month waiting list at the preschool.

'We can have 30 children at once but we have about 50 families here altogether.”

Greerton Tot Spot Early Learning Centre is one of the largest ECE centres in Tauranga holding a capacity of up to 72 children and owner Michelle Hodge says the centre is almost full.

'We've had a huge number of enrolments this year.”

Michelle says the centre has a good representation of both Maori and Pacific Island children and has noticed an increase in enrolments since April last year.

'A lot of our new enrolments are Maori children.”

Nationally the number of Maori and Pacific children attending preschool is also rising, increasing nearly two per cent since April 2012.

The provisional data for the first quarter of 2013 shows about 95.5 per cent of all Kiwi children starting school had participated in early childhood education. That's up from 94.7 per cent at the same time last year.

National has set a target that in 2016, 98 per cent of all children starting school will have participated in quality early childhood education.

'Making sure every child gets a good education is the most important thing our Government can do to raise living standards, and create a more competitive and productive economy,” says Simon.