Federal ALP announces early learning plan

SALLY EDSALL examines Federal Labor's early childhood education plan.

Federal Labor has launched its early childhood education plan, New Directions for Early Childhood Education: universal access to early learning for 4 year olds.

The aim of providing a funded 15 hours per week of preschool education for all children in the year before starting school is welcome, as are other aspects of the plan, including:

• additional investment of $450 million per year when universal access is achieved after five years;
• a workforce planning strategy which provides an additional 1500 early childhood education teacher trainees each year. Fifty per cent of HECS repayments would be met for five years after graduation for up to 10,000 early childhood graduates working in areas of specific need, for example rural and regional areas, Indigenous communities and areas of socio economic disadvantage.

In addition, there is a plan to expand the number of qualified childcare workers. The federal government would cover the cost of TAFE fees or other eligible (that is, private) providers for childcare trainees.

The plan, by Federal Labor leader Kevin Rudd and families and community services shadow minister Jenny Macklin, states that in the federal area, responsibility for early learning would be transferred to the Commonwealth Department of Education. This accords with NSW Coalition policy for early childhood in NSW, but is in contrast to the Iemma State Government's position, which continues to insist that the bulk of preschool education will remain the responsibility of the Department of Community Services and not be transferred to the education portfolio.

While all of this is a welcome step in providing a commitment to early childhood education, teachers, parents and principals in NSW continue to call for a preschool to be attached to all public primary schools.

The Rudd announcement will, however, have the effect of delivering vast amounts of money to both private schools and the for-profit childcare sector.

The policy states on the first page:

"These programs will be...delivered across a diversity of early childhood settings -- public and private -- as Labor is concerned with the quality of the learning, not where it takes place."

There are two extremely worrying consequences of this.

First, for the first time ever, private schools will receive funding for their preschool classes. This not only includes the elite independent schools, many of which already have preschool classes, but could potentially see preschools attached to every Catholic school, in the way that the state government refuses to contemplate for public schools.

Second, it would deliver a huge amount of public funding to the for-profit sector, such as the stock-exchange listed ABC Learning Centres.

Federation continues to call on the State Government to institute its own early childhood education plan, with a major announcement prior to the state election in March.

Sally Edsall is a Research Officer.

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