ACT Preschool Hours Changed for 2016

Last Month the ACT Government announced that all children in Canberra would receive 15 hours of free preschool in 2016, but what does this actually mean for students, teachers and parents? Nicholas Crawford went down to North Ainslie Preschool to find out more.

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Concerns have been raised after the ACT Government last month committed itself providing 15 hours of free preschool in 2016.

With the Government already committed to the Mr Fluffy buyback scheme and Light Rail for Canberra it is unlikely the scheme will proceed past 2016 without Federal Government funding.

Despite the fact that the government is marketing preschool in the ACT as free, parents will still have to provide money for equipment and resources.

President of the Hackett Preschool Parents Committee Masha Somi says that while the government provides the teacher and the building, the onus is on parents to provide most other things.

“The Government provides the capital, which is the building and the teachers, and then the preschool associations are required to fundraise the remainder of the costs” Somi said.

“Those costs include paper, toys, outdoor equipment, crayons, paint etcetera, so basically any recurring costs that are born through the teaching program the parents are responsible for.”

Somi says that Hackett Preschool aims to fundraise between $10,000 and $12,000 dollars this year to subsidise the preschool program which they achieve through various fundraisers.

“At our preschool we do a Bunning’s Barbeque, we do a garage sale, we have photo exhibitions etcetera so there’s a range of activities that different preschools undertake to get the funding that is required.”

Compared to New South Wales where some parents pay up to $50 per day for preschool the system in the ACT is still a good deal for parents, even though some parents may end up doing to bulk of the fundraising.

The Federal Government is yet to commit to supporting the ACT Government in the initiative.

[Filed on 2 October 2015]