Ahead of presenting the Greens vision for early childhood and pre-school education to a meeting of grassroots early education advocates in Alstonville tomorrow, the Greens candidate for Page, Jeff Johnson said that every political party needs to commit to strengthening pre-school education.
“In amongst this year’s election promises, it is vital that the education and welfare of children remains a top priority of any future government,” said Mr Johnson.
“The Greens strongly believe that educating the nation starts with building public preschools, paying preschool teachers a fair wage, and guaranteeing two years of free public pre-school to every Australian child.
“Two years of free pre-school for every child is an important and far reaching education measure that the Australian government should take.
“Early childhood education is a critical component of lifelong learning. Providing adequate funding in early childhood, especially pre-school education, is also an extremely cost-effective investment in the health, wellbeing and social engagement of young Australians.
“Ensuring that there are adequate public pre-schools offered to every community, and that pre-school teaching staff are well qualified and well paid should be a budget priority.
“Yet an OECD study last year found that Australia spends the least on preschool funding of any OECD country. This is a problem that the Greens would fix.
“The Australian Greens’ public pre-school policy approach will improve the affordability of child care for low and middle income families, with particular attention to meeting the demand for early childhood education services for the most disadvantaged children.
“The Greens plan to establish pre-primary school learning centres within existing primary schools is one good way to start building more pre-school capacity in our local community,” said Mr Johnson.