Premier

More Children To Benefit From Kindergarten

13 October 2016

The Andrews Labor Government is working to boost kindergarten participation numbers of children from culturally diverse backgrounds with a new pilot program across three local government areas.

The $100,000 project aims to get children from non-English speaking backgrounds enrolled in kindergarten in the year before school, helping councils overcome issues of low attendance.

The Moonee Valley, Banyule and Moreland City Councils will take part with support from the Centre for Community Child Health at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute.

The pilot will review kindergarten timetables to better suit families, make enrolment processes easier and ensure families from all cultural backgrounds are equipped with valuable information on their local kindergarten.

The Labor Government has a range of measures to encourage and support all children to reap the benefits of quality early years education and care to help children from diverse backgrounds.

Those include interpreting services for providers, fee subsidies for refugee families, bicultural workers in supported playgroups and specialist support in standalone kindergartens.

The findings from the project will be assessed and reviewed in July 2017.

We are making Victoria the Education State – and this starts with putting kids on the right track early to give them the best start in life.

Quote attributable to Minister for Families and Children Jenny Mikakos

“We know children who don’t attend kindergarten are more vulnerable when it comes to their development, and we need to break the mould to boost participation rates for all Victorian children.”

Quote attributable to Member for Essendon Danny Pearson

“Research shows that participation in high-quality early childhood services will break the cycle of disadvantage and help children succeed.”

Reviewed 19 August 2020

Was this page helpful?