In an announcement at the Ararat Early Learning Centre on Friday, Minister for Early Childhood Education Jenny Mikakos said a re-elected Andrews government would fund and roll out universal three-year-old kindergarten for 15 hours a week per child in Victoria. 

“We are providing almost $5 billion as part of a 10-year plan to roll out a full 15 hours of three-year-old kindergarten,” Ms Mikakos said. 

The initial expansion will roll out to regional Victoria first, covering the areas that already have the capacity and facilities to meet demand.

The roll-out is scheduled for 2020-21, and will include Ararat Rural City, Northern Grampians Shire, Yarriambiack Shire, Hindmarsh Shire and Southern Grampians Shire. 

Ararat Early Learning Centre early childhood educator Kerri Turner welcomed the news but had some reservations about the logistics of the plan. 

“I think any money for early childhood is welcome money because there is plenty of research out there that shows children who have a lot of time in early childhood develop better and are more successful later in life,” she said.

“My concern is how are they going to staff this and what qualifications are going to be needed, because if the qualifications are early childhood teachers, that will have a big impact on us because they are as scarce as hen’s teeth.” 

Ms Turner said an early childhood education qualification could take three to four years. However she said if a diploma-level qualification was accepted, that would make it easier to attract staff on time because this qualification only took two years to achieve.

“There are work-arounds … I think it’s wonderful that there is the focus on early childhood because they’re our future,” she said.

Ms Mikakos said the plan would provide significant savings for Victorian families, as sending a three-year-old to kinder for 15 hours a week cost families about $5000 a year.

With the subsidy in place, families could save at least $3500. Three-year-old kindergarten would be free for low-income families, which the minister said represented about a quarter of Victorian families.

“Currently about a third of Victorian children are doing three-year-old kindergarten so we know we have about 60,000 kids missing out on this vital early learning opportunity, and the reason most children are missing out is due to cost,” she said. 

“The subsidy is on the same basis as it works for four-year-old kindergarten, which is effectively 65 per cent of the cost from the Victorian Government.

“We think this is an important and worthwhile investment to make because all the international and Australian research tells us that two years of preschool is far better than one.”

The announcement was made in conjunction with the federal Opposition, who announced on Thursday it would guarantee ongoing funding for both three and four-year-old kindergarten if successful in the next federal election.

Ms Mikakos said four-year-old kindergarten was already funded to 15 hours a week, but that funding was scheduled to finish at the end of 2019 under the current federal government.

“We have been having a big argument with them now for four years whilst we’ve been in government about giving our early years sector and families funding for four-year-old kindergarten, and we’ve had no commitment beyond 2019,” she said.

“The early years sector is just completely fed up with that. 

“We will continue to advocate to the current federal Liberal government about the ongoing need for four-year-old kindergarten. I think there is going to be enormous pressure on them following the announcement from Bill Shorten about federal kindergarten funding.”