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Early childhood expert: Free kindergartens being erased

Author
Sam Thompson,
Publish Date
Sun, 21 May 2017, 6:40AM

Early childhood expert: Free kindergartens being erased

Author
Sam Thompson,
Publish Date
Sun, 21 May 2017, 6:40AM

Parents and early childhood experts are calling for the Government to put the "free" back into kindergarten.

ChildForum chief executive Dr Sarah Alexander says almost no kindergartens now meet the definition of being a 'free kindergarten', as society generally understands it.

She said as children are attending kindergartens for more than four hours a day, many charge fees and are managed as part of larger business entities with little or no community control.

"The high quality, free, public kindergarten model of education for children prior to starting school is at very high risk of now being erased totally because it's becoming very similar to daycare," Dr Alexander said.

She also believes kindergarten associations are chasing more revenue by increasing hours and charging parents.

"As more kindergartens in the future go beyond six or seven hour days to eight or nine hour days to compete with daycare services, we will see kindergartens as we know it completely disappear," she said.

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