Victoria and NSW introduce extra year of early education

Two states have announced the biggest educational reform in Australia in a generation, changing the way kids will learn.

Young children in Victoria and NSW will get an extra year of early education as part of major generational reform in both states.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews and his NSW counterpart Dominic Perrottet announced the groundbreaking move on Thursday to help kids “be the very best they can be”.

NSW and Victoria will introduce an extra year of early education.

“In the next 10 years, every child in Victoria and NSW will experience the benefits of a full year of play-based learning before their first year of school,” the premiers said in a joint statement.

“A year dedicated to growing and learning, new friends and new experiences. A year devoted to helping our kids be the very best they can be. Giving them the skills they need for school but, just as importantly, the skills they need for life.

The new years of schooling will be known as ‘pre-prep’ and ‘pre-kindergarten’. Picture: Supplied

“At the same time, it will benefit hundreds of thousands of working families.”

The extra year of “play-based learning” is free but not compulsory in both states for all four-year-olds.

Victoria is targeting a 2025 start date, with the new year of schooling to be known as “pre-prep” and run for 30 hours a week.

The scheme is part of a new $9bn investment into education from the state government over the next decade that will also include free kinder a week from 2023 (meaning savings of up to $2500 per child) and establish 50 new childcare centres.

Mr Andrews said the 50 new centres would particularly target families in metro and regional growth corridors that typically lacked infrastructure.

“We’ll work with individual councils, all the different stakeholders across this sector and we’ll be driven by the data,” he said.

“We know where (childcare deserts are). They’re in the outer suburbs, in the growth corridors and not just in Melbourne but in regional centres too.

“Getting staff at the moment across many different industries is really, really hard and that’s why at national cabinet tomorrow we’ll have a discussion about clearing the backlog (of skilled migration workers).”

Pre-prep’ is part of a $9bn education investment from the Victorian government. Picture: NCA NewsWire / David Crosling

Mr Andrews said the central intention of the scheme was to free up parents to return to work without being penalised by salary caps on childcare fees.

“What it does is free up tens and tens of thousands of women who might work an extra shift or an extra day when it actually might be costing them money,” he said.

“The greatest thing we can do to deal with workforce shortages in every industry is to make childcare work for working families.”

NSW is planning to roll out “pre-kindergarten” from 2030 as part of a more than $5.8bn commitment over the next 10 years.

It will run for five days a week and is set to be the big headline item in next week’s state budget.

Pilot and trial programs will begin in NSW from 2023 so the free five-day service can be delivered in full to around 230,000 students by 2030.

NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet announcing ‘pre-kindergarten’ on Thursday. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Nikki Short

With 90 per cent of a child’s brain developing before the age of five, Mr Perrottet said it was important to make sure no child “misses out” on early education.

“We know that early childhood education works. For many years preschools right across our state have provided our children with great opportunities to set them up for school success,” he said.

“What we’ve learnt is that starting at preschool makes a real difference to children’s educational and social outcomes.

“All parents know how hard it is to get a spot in a preschool; that is because everyone wants to come. What we will do through this reform is be in a position where no child misses out.”

On why its program will start five years later than Victoria’s, NSW Education Minister Sarah Mitchell suggested it could be because of size.

“We (NSW) are slightly bigger, we’re the biggest in the country. We’ve got 5500 early childhood services, we’ve got a lot of kids,” she said.

“It’s just a matter of making sure that we do it right.”

Both premiers hoped the changes would help parents return to work “on terms that work for them”.

They also said it would build a system that “works for women, not against them”.

Mr Perrottet called the announcement the “greatest transformation of early education in a generation.”

“Two states working together, leading the nation on revolutionary reform in our education system,” he said.

Mr Andrews said it was about giving kids “the very best start in life”.

“Some things are bigger than state boundaries … we’re joining with NSW to start the biggest ever reform to early education,” he said.

“This is the biggest economic and social reform that I’ve had the privilege to be involved in in my 20 years in the Victorian parliament.”