Free childcare cut off will set back thousands of Australian school starters

As free childcare comes to an end, Australian parents now face the impossible decision of irrevocably stunting their child’s education or parting with money they don’t have, writes Clare Masters.

For the little kids heading into big school next year, now is the time.

Now is when their educators will start to work with them on pencil grip, opening lunch boxes and putting on their socks and shoes.

Now is the time when the children who have birthdays in April, May or June will be assessed by their childcare workers for their school readiness.

Now is when the carers will talk to mum and dad about what they need to work on with their child for the next six months so that Miss Four or Master Almost Five will be ready.

These are the kind of things that make early childhood education exactly that. Not babysitting, but educating.

But for parents like Tom Adams – who is facing having to pull out his four year old from his daycare centre once free childcare ends next month – these are the things his son might miss out on.

For the little kids heading into big school next year, now is the time. Picture: AAP/Mick Tsikas

A small-business owner, Adams runs a martial arts school and has been financially devastated by the virus. Free childcare meant his son was able to continue his school readiness programs. But now he is faced with having to pull him out.

While there is a mix of preschool funding, partly from the state and the commonwealth, partly for community preschools or for resourcing preschool materials in centre-based care, it is limited to a certain number of hours a week, and Adams says his centre already has a wait list which benefits those wanting to go full-time.

For the future preschool graduates of 2020, the childcare crisis hasn’t just caused them to miss out on seeing their friends, it has meant they haven’t been able to receive their full school readiness skills.

And while a few months at the start of the year are easy to make up for those who are heading back, a huge number of childcare educators have serious concerns about the children whose parents have no choice but to pull them out now that free childcare is ending.

Children who cannot return to childcare face the risk of not being ready for school next year. Picture: iStock

Compounding the issue is the fact that many centres have been struggling financially though the COVID-19 shutdown. A survey from the United Workers Union of more than 1000 early childcare workers found centres had to let go of so many staff they were unable to keep up basic cleaning and education programs.

Through the pandemic, free childcare freed up families but left many providers financially struggling with about half the income. Now, as the old system returns, centres are welcoming back paying parents, but the families who have lost work are facing the choice of pulling their child out and disrupting their education or paying money they can’t afford to continue it.

And educators are particularly worried about the class of 2021 due to head to school next year but without the school skills.

The free run of childcare may be ending but the crisis isn’t over yet.

Clare Masters is the national education reporter for News Corp.