SA Labor announces new policy to allow three year-olds to attend pre-schools with extended operating hours

Labor has just announced a policy that would allow three-year-olds to attend pre-schools with extended operating hours - and a royal commission to guide the radical change.

Opposition Leader Peter Malinkauskas with wife Annabel, daughters Sophie, 6 and Eliza, 18 months and son Jack, 4, at SA ALP Convention. Picture: Naomi Jellicoe

Children aged three will be able to go to preschools where operating times will be extended, in a radical policy proposal the Opposition will take to the March election.

Cost, accessibility and quality of outside school hours care would also be addressed in a major restructure of early childhood education.

The move would simultaneously help more workers – especially women who still carry the main burden of child minding – to take on full-time work and lift education, particularly in the crucial first 1000 days of a child’s life.

A Labor government would establish a royal commission to guide the changes which Opposition Leader Peter Malinauskas said would be highly complex.

Addressing his party’s state convention on Saturday, Mr Malinauskas said education was a central pillar of Labor policies, including its economic strategy.

He pledged that universal, voluntary access to preschool for three-year-olds would be implemented in 2026.

“This is a complex problem, improving it is a very big deal,” he said.

“This means major reform to funding and delivery.”

The royal commission would help work through the complexity that involves intergovernmental finances, effects on small businesses such as privately or community-run childcare centres as well as public understanding and backing.

“This can’t be a back of the envelope job – because we have a very ambitious goal,” Mr Malinauskas said.

“What we have now just does not work, not for kids, not for parents.

“The 8:15am to 3:30pm school day is simply no longer compatible to the life of most modern families.”

Mr Malinauskas told the 250 convention delegates he was proposing “the most important and complicated reform to education in SA in generations”.

The royal commission would run for 12 to 20 months.

Deputy Opposition Leader Susan Close said it would have three terms of reference:

SUPPORT for families in health, parenting and education to ensure the best outcomes from the first 1000 days of a child’s life.

ESTABLISHING universal, quality preschool for three and four year olds.

OUT of school hours care at preschool and primary school.

Mr Malinauskas highlighted SA’s educational results – such as the globally respected Program for International Student Assessment – showed Australia falling behind and SA students lagging national averages.

The biggest thing a state government could do for young people coming out of Covid-19 would be to equip them with the skills and training for prosperity, he said.

“That’ll mean jobs for the future and better income for our state,” he said.

“If we can assist modern families who are grappling with the balance between keeping kids in school and their own working lives, we can deliver more people into the workforce at the very time we need more skilled workers.

“We want to make it easier for working mums and working dads to get their kids the education they need but also participate in the workforce.”

Australian Labor Party spokesman on education Blair Boyer, Deputy Opposition Leader Susan Close and Opposition Leader Peter Malinauskas at the ALP SA state convention. Picture: Chris Russell

Mr Malinauskas said it was too early to cost the policy because there were many different models of how it could operate.

Private providers of childcare and after-school care could be involved. There were risks of unintended consequences on private providers that needed to be avoided.

After-school care varied considerably from services which were well structured to others where “the kids just get put in front of a TV”.

The policy would aim to create consistent, high quality services which benefited the children.

It would also take time to build up the workforce of early childhood educators, Mr Malinauskas said.

The state government has withdrawn funding for TAFE SA courses in Adelaide to train early childhood workers. Mr Malinauskas hinted Labor would restore that funding.

Dr Close said she had consulted the Victorian government, which along with NSW and the ACT, is introducing a preschool program for three-year olds.

After the policy direction was decided, Dr Close informed former premier Jay Weatherill who heads a national early childhood campaign Thrive by Five.

The early childhood and OSHC announcements are part of a suite of ALP education policies.

Labor would also:

GIVEprincipals more power to hire and fire teachers.

INTRODUCE a mid-year intake to start preschool or school.

OFFER$5000 scholarships for students to study teaching.

RENEGOTIATE the school funding agreement with the federal government.