EARLY Childhood Minister Jenny Mikakos says regional communities, like a growing Ballarat, will likely first benefit from extra investment in training kindergarten teachers.
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Minister Mikakos, in visiting Midlands Kindergarten on Wednesday, promised free TAFE for two early childhood courses in a bid to support Labor’s universal three-year-old kinder plans if re-elected to government.
Labor has also flagged more than 8000 scholarships for people studying to become kindergarten teachers at university, plus incentives encouraging trained staff to relocate regionally.
This comes as Labor predicts about 800 new kindergarten places will be needed in Ballarat in the next decade.
The $5 billion universal three-year-old kinder reform, if Labor is re-elected, would start rolling out from 2020 with 15 hours of subsidised kindegarten (worth about $5000) – and one quarter of Victorian parents would qualify to pay nothing at all.
This plan is tipped to demand 4,900 extra kinder teachers statewide and more than 2000 extra early childhood educators.
Minister Mikakos said research showed 90 per cent of a child’s brain development occured before a child turned five, and an extra year of pre-school would help boost a chance to learn and be school-ready, which in turn could help lift long-term school retention rates and outcomes.
Eureka Community Kindergarten Association chief Jo Geurts said two years of sound pre-school was telling.
“There’s plenty of research and evidence that shows two years of pre-school before a child starts school makes an incredible difference in those children’s readiness,” Ms Geurts said.
“They gain a disposition for learning which sets them up for better outcomes in their schooling and better engagement in the long-term in education.”
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