By Kirsty Ross
PRINCIPALS, parents and teachers say many children in the West are missing out on kindergarten because the fees are too high.
And some prep classrooms are in turmoil because unruly children are not socially sound before they start school.
“This has really frightened me, you feel your kid is being held back,” said Marita Ryan, an Altona Meadows mother-of three.
She said non-socialised youngsters bring down the learning standards with “devastating” effects on socialised children, while those who attend pre-school are actually ready to learn when they reach school.
Glen Devon Primary School principal Lloyd Campbell realised something had to be done last year, when about half of his new prep intake did not attend pre-school.
He instituted the school’s Language through Play Program, to encourage language development in those children.
“We consider ours to be innovative and working very, very, well,” Mr Campbell said.
In a separate classroom, underdeveloped preps without pre-school take part in so called “big book” reading and typical pre-school activities to encourage fair play, sharing and vocabulary.
Ms Ryan is the founding member of lobby group Parents for Pre-school Education, and president of Altona Meadows’ Russell Court Kindergarten, and said she understood both sides of the coin, having children in kinder and prep.
The lobby group, together with several organisations and schools, is urging the Department of Education to take over the running of kinders from the Department of Human Services.
About 150 people, including parents, teachers and lobbyists, met recently in Williamstown North Primary School to debate the issue, and they voted unanimously to move the control.
Ms Ryan said the cost for a four-year-old to go to kinder was about $1500 a year, and the State Government funded less than two thirds of that.
Parents fork out about $600 a year for 10 hours a week of kinder.
The situation was worse for parents of three-year-olds, who receive no funding and still shell out the same amount of money each year, for two-and-a-half hours a week.
Shane Bourke, mayor of Wyndham City Council – the third fastest growing city in Australia – said the recent State Government Budget proved the success of council lobbying from outer suburbs for more child care cash.
