Kindergarten programs to teach four-year-old youngsters a second language are to receive extra funding from next year under a new program announced by the Minister for Early Childhood and Pre-Prep, Ingrid Stitt.
Ms Stitt invited eligible Early Childhood services to apply for funding to deliver a Bilingual Kindergarten program from Term 1, 2024, which she said would support stronger cross-cultural learning in Four-Year-Old Kindergarten programs.
She said language immersion had a profound positive impact on children’s learning and the Government was providing more language education to help give early learners the best start to life.
“An investment of $3.7 million in the Victorian Budget 2023/24 will double the footprint of the successful Bilingual Kindergarten program from 10 to 20 services – giving more children across the state increased cultural, social and educational skills and knowledge,” Ms Stitt said.
She said around 800 children currently attended the 10 existing bilingual kindergartens where they learnt in a language other than English for 12 hours of their weekly 15-hour kindergarten program.
“Qualified language teachers incorporate language learning into everyday kinder experiences through fun and engaging activities like singing, dancing, painting and storytelling,” Ms Stitt said.
“This enriching learning environment boosts our littlest learners’ reading and writing skills, raises their self-esteem and strengthens their cultural identity.”
She said that in selecting their language program, the early childhood service providers would be asked to consider community diversity and languages of newly arrived children in their area.
“Service providers with a large proportion of students from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds are also encouraged to apply to run one of the 10 new programs,” the Minister said.
“While existing programs currently offer Mandarin, French, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Punjabi, and Auslan, new participating early childhood services can offer any language of their choosing.”
Ms Stitt said kindergartens interested in applying would be further encouraged to deliver a local Aboriginal language program and would be supported to seek Traditional Owner approval to do so.
Expressions of interest close on 13 August and an application can be made on the Early Childhood Language Program website at this PS News link.
