I REFER to Jim Mynard’s My View article Something Worth Thinking About (Gazette, 6 September) in relation to the value of kindergarten.
This does highlight one of the major benefits that can be achieved by bringing all early childhood services and education under the one department.
Did you know that with preschools and schools currently residing in different departments, they are unable to share information about a child’s development without parent consent due to privacy laws?
Did you know that in many cases a developmental issue may be identified in preschool with support/treatment started with funded assistance, but then when entering the school system, the child may need to go through a new regime of assessment before resources can be allocated?
I am tired of hearing retiring Minister Sherryl Garbutt comment that Victoria has an accessible and affordable preschool system when 4000 children miss out each year.
The government continues on this line of “integrating all early childhood services” and keeping them all together.
Why stop at age five?
Why create an artificial divide between care and education?
The true definition of early childhood is zero to eight years.
Is it in the best interests of our children to continue to prop up a system that is not working when the best, most effective models have care and education in the one department?
We have a chronic shortage of preschool teachers with many planning to leave the profession in the next five years and very few are entering.
Every working mother, like me, should have the confidence that when they send their child to a childcare centre they will receive a quality preschool program conducted by a qualified early childhood teacher.
Does this currently happen?
Not very often as there are not enough teachers and very little incentive for graduates to choose preschool teaching.
Parents, teachers and school principals are the ones working with the children every day.
Surely the opinion of more than 34,000 people who signed a petition should count, as we have no professional vested interest in demanding the best for our children.
We do live in a ‘civilised’ country and we should be ashamed that over 4000 Victorian children miss out on preschool each year.
I hope the government will wake up, listen and act.
Cherylle Hampton,
Parents for Preschool Education,
Upper Beaconsfield.
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