Small childcare providers will not be forced to close due to funding changes, Education Minister Simon Birmingham has assured.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The senator visited Wodonga Early Years Childcare service as part of his tour of education facilities.
His office was in the process of childcare reforms, taking away fixed funding for providers plus restrictions over how many days and hours they could operate.
“I’m confident we can ensure the services there can continue and, hopefully, that the new arrangements will ensure those services have the capacity to offer more hours, more days of care and that can actually give better outcomes,” Senator Birmingham said.
“Young children in regional settings deserve those early education opportunities just as much, if not even more so, because they need particular access to opportunities to socialise and engage.”
Young children in regional settings deserve those early education opportunities just as much, if not even more.
- Senator Simon Birmingham
He said each provider will be audited and assessed for grants to assist with the transition, coming into effect in July 2018.
The senator also visited La Trobe University’s Albury-Wodonga campus and described its diploma to degree pathway program as “innovative”. “These are the types of models that I want to take back and think about in the context of overall higher education reform,” he said.
La Trobe head of campus Guin Threlkeld said it was positive to show the minister the city’s “educational precinct” between the university and Wodonga TAFE.
She said continued funding for La Trobe’s water and aging research and an increase in students numbers would help to tackle issues and economic growth on the Border.
“In communities like Wodonga, a lot of the population aren’t really familiar with post-school education and that has an impact on the movement of students when they leave school,” Ms Threlkeld said.
“We’re very keen to see sub-bachelor places available in communities where there is a need to lift skills and participation.”
Indi MP Cathy McGowan said opportunities to study in Albury-Wodonga would allow the region to take a place in the national economy.
“I’m really looking forward to education policy of the Turnbull government actually reflecting rural and regional Australia,” she said.
“At the moment I just don’t see that happening.
“I see a concentration on the cities and I’m just saying to the government come on now, let’s put rural and regional Australia at the centre and let’s put education at the centre of that.”
