Page 3177 - Week 10 - Thursday, 17 September 2015
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I am sure mine is not the only office that has been contacted by working mothers frustrated that until today they had no way of knowing how many hours of education their child would be able to receive. It was equally frustrating for preschools that were unable to provide any certainty to parents wishing to enrol their children.
Let me read out one email I received at the beginning of last month, and it is a copy of a communication that was sent to the education directorate:
Dear ETD,
The Federal Government announced in May of this year that they would be continuing to fund up to 600 hours for each child for preschool in 2016 and 2017. Which equates to 15 hours per week for the school year. In that case why have you still not notified schools of the funding that they will receive next year?
My son has been accepted into (unnamed) Childhood school. I spoke to them yesterday in relation to the days that my son will be attending next year. They said that they couldn’t tell me as they didn’t know how much funding they were going to receive. They said that if they only receive 12 hours then the options will be Mon&Tue or Wed&Thur. If they receive 15 hours then options will be Mon, Tue & alternate Wed or alternate Wed, Thur and Fri.
I need to work 3 days per week. I have another young child who is in childcare. I need to be able to coordinate preschool and childcare for both of them and still work 3 FULL days each week. Do you understand how hard that is when I don’t know which days of preschool I will get offered. The preschool have already told me that most people want the beginning of the week session (which is also my preference as I currently work Mon-Wed and have both children in childcare Mon-Wed), and they cannot guarantee the beginning of the week and I could get offered the end of the week.
That would all be ok, however, I need to tell my current childcare centre my preferences for next year. They are sending out the form next week to request next year’s days. NEXT WEEK!
So, do I keep my youngest in on Mon-Wed and hope for the best that my eldest will get the beginning of the week at preschool? Do I keep my eldest in at his current childcare on a Wednesday (if 15 hours of preschool is offered), or do I try to get him in on a Friday in case only 12 hours is offered and I can only get the end of the week preschool session.
If I get the end of the week preschool session then I have to tell my youngest childcare centre NOW that I want to change his days. They can guarantee me his current days for next year (Mon-Wed) but if I need to change to align with my eldest then it will depend on availability and I’m not guaranteed to get Wed-Fri.
That is the end of the quote from this constituent who is obviously very frustrated and confused about the whole issue. This confusion and frustration could have been avoided. But I am pleased that at last there will be some clarity for parents. I am not sure how preschoolers in non-government schools are being treated, but we will be seeking advice as to how they are faring.
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