Childcare cost on the up
This is a very big topic of conversation right now, Childcare costs are rising and rising fast. Many centres have waiting lists as long as your arm. How are the government going to assist out working popluation? Will this force our working families to enrol children into our primary schools early?
CareforKids.com wrote a fantastic post earlier this week which i have attached for you to look over
From the CareforKids webpage:
“The Soaring Cost Of Child Care
Is it forcing parents to send kids to school early?
Last week the Daily Telegraph printed a story which revealed some parents are sending their children to school early, even if they may not quite be ready, in a bid to avoid the exorbitant child care fees.
Bruce McDougall, on May 29, said that the “soaring cost of childcare is forcing thousands of parents to pack their children off to school before they turn five and can cope in the classroom”…
The article, based on an exclusive survey commissioned by The Daily Telegraph found more than 70 per cent of parents planned to send their children to school as soon as they were legally eligible, which seems fairly obvious if not a little low! Fourteen per cent, however, said this was because school was cheaper than childcare.
Childcare NSW president Lyn Connolly said it was “outrageous” that schools took so many 4½-year-olds despite advice they were not ready for school.
“We have had children go to school and return to us as late as July or August,” she said.
In Australia, school age requirements, as with so many other vital parts of Australian life, are not Federal but set by State, so it’s all very confusing in terms of when a child is at the right age for Kindergarten.
There is also a trend towards “holding back” children in Australia where it is quite common for children to turn 6 early on in their Kindergarten year. The fact that so many children of legitimate school age are “not ready” could also be due to the fact that Australia still has no compulsory pre-school system to prepare them for school…
Another issue on the government’s ever growing “To Do” list!”