ELACCA welcomes Green’s $20 billion policy enabling free preschool programs

The Early Learning and Care Council of Australia (ELACCA) welcomes the Australian Greens announcement of a policy that will enable free preschool programs for all three and four-year-old Australian children and the abolition of the activity test.

ELACCA CEO, Elizabeth Death said the Australian Greens Early Childhood Education and Care policy proposed free preschool programs for all Australian three and four year olds and the abolition of the activity test to enable right of access for all children regardless of where they live, how much their parents work or earn.

“We are pleased to see that the Green’s policy supports our call for major parties to commit to ensuring every child has access to two years of play based learning to help launch them into their lifelong learning journey.

“We know right now that 1 in 5 children in Australia start school behind. We know the ages 3 to 5 are critical for brain development and that is why children who have had access to two years of high quality, play-based early learning make the best transitions to school,” Ms Death said.

On behalf of its member base comprised of the largest early learning and care providers in Australia and ahead of the Federal Election, ELACCA has led the Launch into Learning campaign asking the parties to commit to:

  • Significant new investment in all children to ensure they attend two years of high-quality early learning before primary school
  • Better support for children experiencing disadvantage or vulnerability by ensuring they attend 600 hours of quality preschool programs
  • Fixing the Child Care Subsidy so that it supports all children’s access to preschool programs
  • A strategy to ensure Australia has sufficient numbers of highly trained early childhood teachers and educators
  • Ongoing commitment to the National Quality Framework Ends

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