Kerre Woodham: How is a child's lack of basic skills not the parents' responsibility?

As children head off to school this week, many of them for the first time, a woeful number of young ones are ill-prepared for the classroom.

A recent survey conducted by the Auckland Primary Principals' Association and released by the ECE sector partnership, found nearly 90% of Auckland primary schools have reported an increasing number of children starting school without basic skills, such as talking, eating, and toileting. To be very clear, these are not children who have mental and or physical disabilities.