sensum minds #1 - Bridging the education gap
Sensum Minds Education Series - Part 1
The landscape of early childhood education in Australia is undergoing a significant transformation. Driven by government initiatives directly responding to the lack of affordable access to childcare and the evolving needs of our young people and their environment, there is now a spotlight on how the government, educators and the industry are tackling this nationwide issue.
The push for enhanced early childhood education options is fuelled by the Federal government's commitment to investing in the future of young Australians. This investment aims to address disparities in educational opportunities and ensure that every child has access to quality early learning experiences.
As we all know, and as the research tells us, the early years of a child’s development are some of the most formative. By the age of five, the size of a child’s brain reaches 90% of that of an adult. We need to ensure that quality childhood education is available and accessible to facilitate early learning and give children the best possible start.
So what’s happening?
In early 2022, the Mitchell Institute conducted the first research of its kind in Australia and examined access to childcare in over 50,000 neighbourhoods across the country. What they found was that around 9 million Australians – that’s 35% of the population – live in neighbourhoods classified as a ‘childcare desert’. The name itself alone alludes to scarcity, but what this technically means is a ‘populated area where there are more than three children per childcare place, or less than 0.333 places per child aged four or under.’
Later, in 2022, Daniel Andrews (Labor Government, Victoria) pledged to deliver a $14 billion investment over the next ten years, which will overhaul early childhood education and care, acknowledging that the current system is working against families. The Victorian government initiative ‘Best Start Best Life Program’ was established to ensure that children are given the best start in life through free Kinder, pre-prep helping kindergartens transition, and early learning centres.
Ardeer Public School & Kindergarten (Read more here)
Sensum has been involved in several aspects of the rollout of this initiative through multiple engagements with the Victorian School Building Authority (VSBA), including site investigations and feasibility studies across Victoria and early learning education projects before the announcement, which included the management of six kindergartens under the KOSS pilot program in 2020/2021.
The NSW government has committed substantial investment in developing a similar initiative. Premier Chris Minns recently announced that, as part of the NSW Government’s mission to boost access to early childhood education, he plans to invest $769 million in building 100 new public preschools co-located at public primary schools by 2027. This will include building preschools at new public primary schools. Forty-nine of these will be in regional and remote areas.
So what’s next?
Well, it is imperative that both public and private schools act.
In response to the growing demand for quality early education, and with some funding now available, schools are taking proactive measures to assess the feasibility of developing or upgrading their early learning centres or co-locating new-build facilities on site. By offering more accessible and quality early childhood learning facilities, schools can attract more families and maintain interest levels in parents wanting to send their children to their school, which, in turn, will provide a seamless transition from early learning to primary education.
We can help schools discover opportunities on their existing land without the high cost of acquiring more. If you would like to know more about navigating site feasibilities and considering options, watch out for Part 2 in our Sensum Minds Education Series or get in touch with one of our Education Team Leaders.