The NSW Teachers Federation has today welcomed the Government’s announcement to invest more than $5.8 billion over 10 years to introduce universal pre-kindergarten for all children in NSW by 2030.
NSW Teachers Federation Deputy President Henry Rajendra said the union has long been calling for a major expansion of the number of public preschools across the state to be located on public primary school sites.
“The NSW Government has the responsibility to provide free preschooling as part of the broader public provision of primary and secondary education.
“Currently, NSW has only 100 public preschools across 1700 public primary school sites.
“In addition to preparing children for kindergarten, public preschooling provides the means for teachers to identify any developmental and learning issues, facilitate necessary diagnoses, organise appropriate medical/therapeutic interventions and access to interagency support and services,” said Mr Rajendra.
“Further, the effective provision of public preschool education is critical to addressing educational and social disadvantage especially for our most vulnerable children and their families.”
“The Federation will be working closely with the Government to ensure that public preschool provision is the priority of this funding commitment,” he added.