Hope For The Future On Early Learning Funding Review

The Early Childhood Council has welcomed moves to ECE teacher pay parity, and the Minister’s signals the funding system is set to be overhauled.

“While we’re disappointed centres’ rising costs haven’t been addressed today, we’re delighted our teachers’ pay is keeping in touch with their kindergarten colleagues, and the commitment to reaching full pay parity,” said ECC President Dr Darius Singh.

“The Minister has agreed a review of the funding model is needed to reach full pay parity, and we fully support this direction. Clearly linking funding to education outcomes will benefit children, parents and providers, and introduce much-needed fairness and transparency.”

The ECC maintains that centres already paying their teams above minimum rates should be able to use the funding increases for expenses like professional development, resources and maintenance.

“We also want to re-iterate that it’s simple for centres to prove how funding increases are used through the existing attestation system,” said Dr Singh.

“It’s easy to see how people get confused by the current system. Are community and private centres now required to adhere to Kindergarten Teachers Collective Agreement terms and conditions they hadn’t signed up for?”

“The funding review can’t come soon enough,” said Dr Singh.

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