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Building a strong foundation for future success
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The Federal Government has announced an extension to its current national preschool program, to now offer another year of funding, guaranteeing free preschool to the nation's most vulnerable four-year olds.
The current program that offers 15 hours of preschool delivered by a qualified early childhood teacher to children from lower socio-economic communities has been a significant reform in Australian education. The new funding now extends this existing 15 hours to now also reach three-year-olds.
Children from low socio-economic communities are more likely to experience developmental vulnerability, so two years of preschool can have a hugely positive impact. A report from the Centre for International Research on Education Systems (CIRES) for the Mitchell Institute found that nearly 25 per cent of Australian children start school without the necessary foundations they need. The report stated: "Some children begin school not developmentally ready and remain behind across all stages. Our estimate is that this affects up to 10 per cent of the population."
The report found that from starting school to Year 7, one in 10 children remain behind. The same proportion remain marginalised at age 24, unable to secure full-time work or engaged in study or training. "This proportion misses out across all stages and is not gaining the preparation needed to take up later opportunities in life,” the report stated.
It also found that 26 per cent of young people do not finish Year 12 or reach a Cert III standard by the age of 19, and this number increases to 40 per cent of young people from the lowest socio-economic communities.
A study by the Australian Early Development Census (AEDC) reinforced the theory that early childhood development is important as a key predictor of future outcomes for children. Their 2015 national report says: "Research has shown that investing time, effort and resources in the early years of a child's life has significant impacts on their behaviour, learning, health and wellbeing, as they transition from childhood to adulthood. Supporting early childhood development thus lays the basis for children to grow up with the skills to succeed, bringing benefits for them and the community as a whole."
A longitudinal study in the UK, run by the Department for Education that set out to investigate the impact of preschool on children's cognitive and social-behavioural outcomes, reached similar conclusions. Researchers found that students who attended two to three years of preschool obtained higher overall scores in their end-of-school exams, better grades in English and in maths, and took final year exams in more subjects.
However, according to a research project from Taylor & Francis, availability of high quality early childhood education and care services in lower socio-economic neighbourhoods continues to be an obstacle. It found that programs in these communities provided a lower average quality of care than in more advantaged neighbourhoods.
The latest National Quality Framework (NQF) Snapshot from the Australian Children's Education and Care Quality Authority (ACECQA) says that, as of 31st March 2017, 73 per cent of children's education and care services are rated at ‘Meeting National Quality Standard' (NQS) or above, an increase from 69 per cent a year ago.
On this, ACECQA Chief Executive Gabrielle Sinclair said, "I am very pleased to see the continued trend of year on year improvement in performance. The NQS is a challenging benchmark. Children's education and care services are assessed against 58 different elements of quality. If any of these elements are not met, the service receives an overall rating of Working Towards NQS."
With 88 per cent of children's education and care services approved to operate under the NQF now with a quality rating and 53 services rates as Excellent, the overall standard does seem to be on the rise. However, 49 per cent of services rated at Working Towards did not meet six or fewer of the 58 elements of quality, there are still many improvements to be made.
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