Starting early

Kindergarten is a great idea. Its aim is to support the learning and development of young children through facilitated play.

It prepares them, not just for school but for life. So, if supporting early childhood development is so important, why do we wait until a child is aged three or four until we start them at kindergarten?

Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd announced Labor's election policy on early childhood education in Brisbane this week. It was another uninspiring commitment in a country where the evidence of the importance of the early years is undisputed.

Rudd's offering to all four-year-olds was access to 15 hours of play-based learning and development programs every week. He said, "Our intention is to ensure that four-year-olds, at the very beginning of life, at the beginning of their experience of the education system, have every quality opportunity available to them."

The problem is that age four isn't the beginning of a child's life. Children are engaging with the children's service sector way before then.

They will have visited child health nurses, attended some form of child care, been involved in playgroups and played on playgrounds. Children will have been engaged in play-based learning way before the Labor commitment of $450 million kicks in. Play is the way children learn. They do it a lot.

A commitment only to kindergartens is disappointing because it draws attention away from the more important issue - broad support for early childhood development from birth to six years.

We have a situation in this country where more and more children are attending childcare centres. Consequently, those centres are becoming the driving force in supporting the play-based learning and development of children, but they are not being regarded as such.

In the halls of Parliament, child care is seen as a service to help women return to work.

This attitude only entrenches the view that kindergarten is where children learn and develop and child care is where they are baby sat.

This is an insult to the childcare sector and the work they do supporting childhood development.

The other Labor announcement of 1,500 university places for early childhood teachers also shows a lack of real commitment.

First, if they want to invest money into early childhood professionals they should be investing in increasing their wages. We know the importance of the early years, but that is not reflected in the wages of professionals.

Second, in childcare services, where the qualified workers are really needed, there is no extra support. Our TAFE colleges have the potential to deliver a range of certificate and diploma courses, but there is no mention of them in the Labor policy statement.

Education Minister Julie Bishop is right to acknowledge that Labor is behind on early childhood. But the Liberals' track record isn't that good in recent years, either. There is no longer a minister for children, a role Larry Anthony once held. The Government continually argues that early childhood education is a state responsibility and in terms of real support for improving the quality of child care in this country the Federal Government has been slow to act.

If either side of politics really wants to make an impact with the early childhood vote this election they would do well to listen to the experts.

Dr Don Edgar, founder of the Australian Institute of Family Studies, and Dr Fiona Stanley, former Australian of the Year, both argue that the learning and development of our children begins at the beginning of life and that we need services and systems to support that.

Kindergarten and child care need to be brought together. We need comprehensive early childhood development centres that support our children to learn through play right through the years before school.

We must start thinking about how we merge childcare and kindergarten services in an attempt to acknowledge that childhood learning and development should be funded during the first six years of a child's life, not just before they start school.

A policy with meaning for the early childhood sector would focus on reform and not just further financial investment. We need policy that addresses the perception that early childhood education begins at kindergarten and we need to bridge the divide between kindergarten and childcare services.