Children in the electorate of Bass will be able to access an extra year of funded kindergarten next year as part of the Victorian Government’s state-wide rollout of three-year-old kindergarten.
Enrolments will soon open for about 2500 kindergarten services in Victoria, with central enrolment programs now open in 25 local government areas and soon to open in another 29.
Families should contact the centres they are interested in for more details about enrolment.
The $5 billion decade-long reform will mean 15 hours a week of funded kindergarten programs for all Victorian three- and four-year-olds by 2029.
The reform started in 2020, and children across 21 local government areas in regional Victoria are already attending from three-year-old kindergarten.
Kinder services and providers across the remaining 58 councils are getting ready to introduce the initiative, with five hours of funded programs on offer in these areas from next year.
This includes programs at both long day care centres and standalone kindergartens, with parents able to look for local services offering kindergarten programs with the State Government’s ‘Kinder Tick’.
A new round of a major state-wide advertising campaign also starts this week to help families understand the benefits of three-year-old kinder and know to contact their local services to enrol their children.
Bass MP Jordan Crugnale praised the rollout of the extra year of kinder.
“The evidence is clear that two years are better than one when it comes to early learning, with children who start kinder at the age of three gaining academic, social and emotional benefits that last throughout their
lives.”
More than 2000 people have been offered financial support packages through the State Government’s Early Childhood Scholarship Program since it was launched in October 2018.
These scholarships support the delivery of universal funded three-year-old kindergarten for all Victorian children over a decade, with the roll-out to create 6000 new early childhood jobs.
