South Australia has committed to providing universal preschool for 3-year-olds by 2032 and becoming the first Australian state to provide up to 30 hours of preschool per week for vulnerable children.
The measures, announced by Premier John Malinauskas this week, come in response to a report into early childhood in the state led by Royal Commissioner and former Prime Minister Julia Gillard.
The report sets a target to reduce the rate of South Australian children entering school developmentally vulnerable from 23.8 per cent to 15 per cent within 20 years.
The government will also immediately begin work on expanding preschool and Out of School Hours Care (OSHC) across the state, underpinned by an initial investment of $70 million, and launch a trial of out of hours care in government-run preschools in 2024, Mr Malinauskas said.
The premier said the government will centralise management of OSHC in government schools under the Department for Education, improving quality and access, and modernise OSHC qualification requirements.
And it will create a new Office for Early Childhood Development “as a steward for the early childhood development system”, and to oversee implement the royal commission’s recommendations.
43 recommendations
Commissioner Gillard makes 43 recommendations in the report, including:
- that the state government provided early childhood services directly in some circumstances to address ‘childcare deserts’.
- improving the quality of government school OSHC service via more direct control by the department of education
- rebooting the Office for the Early Years to oversee system changes
- establishing a statewide childhood development data system
- that the state government commits $14 million per year to an early childhood workforce fund
Commissioner Gillard said the transformative power of education had been a driving purpose of her work life.
“Often Royal Commissions are created to look back at what’s gone wrong,” she said in commending the report to Premier Malinauskas.
“In contrast, this Royal Commission has given us all an opportunity to look forward at how we can provide the best start for every South Australian child.”
Currently in SA, children can attend preschool the year before they start school. Aboriginal children and children in care can access preschool from the age of 3.
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