FARMING families have been left behind following a change to preschool funding, Riverina centres say.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Forest Hill Preschool director Jenny Osborne said she was left devastated after it was announced the funding for her rural facility would be cut in half this year.
The latest NSW government incentive Start Strong intends to provide an additional $115 million in funding to support universal access to early childhood education.
Ms Osborne said funding was allocated for low-income and Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander families to encourage four-year-old and thee-year-old’s to attend preschool for 15 hours every week – 600 hours per year.
She said some preschools would benefit from the subsidies and increased operating hours but the “very specific criteria” would disadvantage other facilities trying to access the new initiative.
“To get maximum funding, you have to get as many numbers through the centre as possible,” Ms Osborne said. “The difficulty is there might not be enough children.”
She said it was yet another scheme that worked for cities but not for the country.
“Due to the abundance of centres in Wagga … we don’t have the numbers to meet the maximum funding,” she said. “So we had to make drastic cuts to our budget to keep fees low.”
After 17 years at Forest Hill, Ms Osborne said the facility would soldier on as always but she was frustrated the government couldn’t seem to understand the needs of rural families.
“I can’t count the number of funding models I’ve seen,” she said. “We all appreciate the money but it doesn’t seem to be well allocated.”
Ms Osborne said it took choice from farming families who may only bring their child to care one day a week.
“Their lifestyle may not suit coming in to town twice a week,” she said. “I understand the government’s philosophy in getting children ready for school but we have to cater for individual families’ needs too.”
She said funding had to be equitable and fair – an opinion she said was shared by other preschool workers across the region.
“I don’t think it’s fair that some three-year-olds don’t get funded and families’ have to change their lifestyle to be treated the same,” she said. “I don’t think that‘s fair at all.”
Ms Osborne said it placed strain on the facility as staffing hours increased to accommodate for seven-and-a-half-hour days.
She said six-hour days were standard because they were the same as school.
“It takes away from what preschool is all about,” she said. “Getting kids ready for school.”
NSW Department of Education were unable to respond to questions by deadline.