The State Government is helping build and expand kindergarten facilities across the state as it gets on with rolling out three-year-old kindergarten, starting in Bairnsdale.
Minister for Education, James Merlino, visited Lucknow Primary School last Thursday to announce a new kindergarten would be built at the school, helping families ditch the dreaded double drop-off.
The government will fund a two-room kinder, creating 66 places for local three and four-year-old children, which is set to open in term one, 2022.
“It’s so exciting that we’re not only providing local children with a great new kindergarten but once completed, it will help make the transition to school that much easier for children who go on to Lucknow Primary School,” Member for Eastern Victoria, Jane Garrett, said.
Member for Gippsland East, Tim Bull, said he had been approached in recent years about the need for the Lucknow Primary School to expand its footprint as it was deemed by members of the school community to be too small for the increasing enrolment and impacting on play areas.
“I would hope consideration has been given to this concern of parents in the new proposal, which will see more students on the footprint,” Mr Bull said.
“On a slightly separate issue, the Bairnsdale Secondary College remains the highest educational need in our region at present and I would have hoped the minister would have had an announcement for its completion on his visit to the area, which I believe is his first in six years as Education Minister.”
Minister Merlino also launched the new Building Blocks grants program, which will streamline all pre-exisiting kindergarten grants into one process with applications for funding now open for local councils and not-for-profit organisations delivering kindergarten facilities.
The program will allocate the $156.6 million over five years made available in the 2019-20 Budget as the first instalment of funding for three-year-old kindergarten.
Building Blocks, which will replace previous grants streams, will include significant increases to the maximum state funding contributions for projects and offer new delivery options such as purpose-built modular kinder facilities.
Funding applications are now open under the Building Blocks capacity stream for projects that create additional kindergarten places for three and four-year-olds.
Councils and non-profit organisations can apply for up to $1.5 million for a New Early Learning Facility, including under the new modular kindergarten facility option, up to $600,000 for an expansion, or up to $2 million for a new integrated children’s centre.
The government is also investing $4.4 million to provide all local councils with grants, of up to $90,000, to support their long-term planning of early childhood infrastructure as three-year-old kindergarten is rolled out.
IMAGE: Minister for Education, James Merlino, visited Lucknow Primary School last Thursday to announce that a new kindergarten would be built at the school, helping families ditch the dreaded double drop-off. Following the announcement Mr Merlino toured the school, spoke with students and read a story to the school’s youngest students. K227-260
