Victorian preschools to get $124m boost to strengthen enrolment

VICTORIA’s preschools will get a $124 million boost to strengthen attendance rates and enrolment.

Victoria’s preschools will get a $124 million boost to strengthen attendance rates and enrolment. Generic picture

VICTORIA’s preschools will get a $124 million boost to strengthen attendance rates and enrolment.

Today’s federal funding announcement is slated to ensure children have greater access to four-year-old kinder.

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It comes days after a group of Victorian councils launched a campaign for the federal government to recommit to subsidising kindergarten through to 2019.

The Turnbull Government will do that today, announcing a $440 million extension to the National Partnership on Universal Access to Early Childhood Education.

Education Minister Simon Birmingham said the funding would ensure 348,000 children could have 15 hours of four-year-old kinder a week.

“The research is clear about the positive impact quality early education and care has for children, especially as preparation for school,” he said.

Figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics showed about 70 per cent of children enrolled in pre-school attended the full 15 hours a week.

“States must find ways to motivate the parents of educationally vulnerable preschoolers to both enrol and attend, otherwise we risk a lost generation ... who start school too far behind their counterparts,” Mr Birmingham said.