By Alesha Capone
MELTON Shire parents have revealed they queue outside council offices in a bid to secure their preferred kindergarten for their children.
The news comes as the council and restless parents call for more funding for early childhood education which is urgently needed within the municipality.
Melton MP Don Nardella and the Opposition Children and Young Adults spokeswoman, Jenny Mikakos, have also urged the State Government to act on the issue.
Melton Mayor Justin Mammarella the area’s “unprecedented growth” in population meant there was a great need to provide additional early years facilities within the municipality.
Several parents from the Caroline Springs area said Melton kindergartens required additional funds to provide more teachers, classes, resources, building improvements and play equipment.
Mother Donna Jovanavic hopes her daughter, who attends three-year-old kindergarten sessions, will get into the same pre-school next year.
“I enrolled her for the four-year-old program but they say there’s no guarantee. It’s first in, best dressed,” she said.
When enrolments opened in March, Ms Jovanavic arrived at 7.30am in the morning to hand in her application to the council, along with many other parents.
“I think the feeling of most parents is, if you don’t get the forms in at eight o’clock in the morning and into the council, you won’t get the spots you want,” fellow parent Suzanne Volpe said.
“Parents queue to get the places they want. I think they need to fund more spots. We’ve got fantastic teachers and great equipment outdoors, so the council’s doing a great job there. I wish the kindergarten my daughter goes to was in an actual building rather than a portable, but the teachers are fantastic.”
Another mum, Melanie Farrugia, has enrolled for son for kindergarten next year.
She nominated the same pre-school his older brothers attended as her first preference, as she knows the “very patient and understanding” teachers there.
“I don’t know what I’d do if he didn’t get into that one,” Ms Volpe said.
Doctors have said her son, who does not talk much apart from saying “mum” and “dad”, would be disadvantaged if he does not get into pre-school.
Cr Mammarella said all children enrolled in Melton were given pre-school places, but in an ideal world the council would like to build two new centres at a cost of approximately $10 million.
“Council would like to build a new facility in Burnside and an upgrade in Caroline Springs,” he said.
The Minister for Children and Early Childhood Development Wendy Lovell said the government was in the process finalising budget commitments of $33.4 million for infrastructure, additional places for children with a disability, operational grants for rural kindergartens and a parenting strategy.
