Page 3579 - Week 10 - Tuesday, 12 September 2017
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It is important to note that while this is the highest—this is at age 3—the remaining 28 per cent of children are unlikely to be attending any early childhood education program, unless they are attending one of our fantastic Koori preschools. It is also likely that these children are the most disadvantaged and most likely to benefit from access to early childhood education and care. As the report notes:
The participation of three-year-olds in early learning in Australia is lagging behind the rest of the developed world. Research indicates that two years of a high-quality preschool program delivers better outcomes than one year, especially for children who are developmentally vulnerable.
In contrast, the participation rate of four-year-olds in early education in the ACT is much higher than that of three-year-olds, with full enrolment. However, the proportion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children attending for 40 weeks of the year is slightly lower than in other jurisdictions, at 94 per cent, with the exception of New South Wales.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children are almost twice as likely to be developmentally vulnerable in health and wellbeing, social competence, communication and emotional maturity. So looking at strategies to engage and work with families in the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities to encourage access is no doubt an important part of the future of education process which the government is working on.
In relation to quality, the report notes that the national quality framework will continue to play a crucial role in driving continual improvement across the sector.
It is pleasing to see that the ACT has one of the highest proportions of early childhood services that have been rated excellent, and exceeding, with the exception of South Australia.
Attracting and upskilling staff, particularly at diploma and degree level, continues to be a challenge, but there have been significant improvements in qualification levels over the past eight years since the national quality framework was introduced. This should remain a focus, because we know that staff qualifications is one of the key structural quality factors that significantly impact on children’s developmental outcomes.
In conclusion, the state of early learning reports provide an important snapshot of early childhood outcome measures in the ACT, and I encourage all members to read it as we continue on the future of education reform journey.
I also take this opportunity to stand in solidarity with early childhood educators who walked off the job for better pay last Thursday. Around 150 early childhood educators in the ACT walked off the job on 7 September in unprecedented action as part of the Big Steps campaign. Strike action is not easy for early childhood educators to take, because of the disruption caused for families accessing childcare. But the early childhood profession has an incredibly powerful influence on children’s long-term development, and early childhood educators who work in non-government early
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