In an attempt to address the critical staff shortages facing the early childhood education sector the Greens have proposed that early childhood teachers who work in child care centres rather than schools should have their university fees wiped out.

The proposal, which has been costed by Treasury and is under consideration by the federal government, would see a year of debt waived for every year that tertiary educated teachers remain in the long day care sector. Early childhood teachers who work in high need areas, such as regional and remote Australia, would have two years' worth of debt waived for each year spent working in long day care.

As of next year all child care services must employ a qualified early childhood teacher under the National Quality Framework and many services are struggling to find qualified staff.

The Greens' Early Childhood Education and Care spokesperson Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said the scheme will help solve this problem by attracting qualified teachers to the child care sector and encouraging them to stay for longer.

"There is a looming and serious shortage of qualified childhood teachers around Australia and the Greens are doing all they can to help create and support those professionals that the industry so desperately needs. This is all about keeping the best possible people in the child care sector looking after our kids across the nation."

Ms Hanson-Young said the scheme is cost effective and that it would be an investment in Australia's children.

"Currently dozens of child care workers leave the sector each week, and it's not surprising when you consider that many people who work in the centres are paid less than those who clean them," she said.

Treasury estimates that the Greens' proposal would keep at least 400 teachers in Long Day Care in the first year alone, at a cost to the government of just $2.5 million in 2013-2014. With the rate of attraction and retention of teachers expected to rise thereafter.

The Greens say this scheme would also encourage early childhood teachers to remain in disadvantaged, remote and regional areas.

However, United Voice, the early education and care union, says waiving the university fees of early childhood teachers, won't fix the child care skills shortage due to the fact it doesn't address the issue of low wages.

"It's good that the Greens recognise the workforce crisis in this sector but this is not the solution," said Assistant National Secretary of United Voice, Sue Lines.

"What Government, the community and the Greens have to face is that the fundamental problem with Australia's child care sector is that the workforce is woefully underpaid. Until that basic problem is fixed, everything else is tinkering around the edges," she said.

Ms Lines said the outcome of the Greens' proposal is that qualified teachers would stay in the early childhood sector until their university debts were paid and then move into the school system where they earn more money and have better working conditions.

"That's not what the sector or families need. What is needed is a lasting solution which will attract and retain quality professionals with a long-term commitment to early childhood education and care."

"The only feasible way to achieve a stable and quality early childhood education and care is for the Federal Government to fund the gap between the current woeful pay and professional wages," she said.