Families and young children are to benefit from an extra year of free preschool with new funding for community and mobile preschools in 2021.
Premier Gladys Berejiklian announced the $120 million allocation to help more than 44,000 three- to five-year-old’s attending community preschool.
Ms Berejiklian said the free preschool program had been supporting families since the beginning of the pandemic and the funding would provide certainty for parents into the future.
Treasurer Dominic Perrottet said the funding would provide up to 15 hours of free care per child per week, allowing many parents to continue working and divert family income from childcare to other essentials.
“It will also help support more than 7,400 early childhood educators and teachers in their vital roles,” Mr Perrottet said.
“This could save families more than $2,000 per-year per-child and will ease cost of living pressures and help balance work and family life,” he said.
Mr Perrottet said the funding would be made available to approximately 700 State-funded community preschools and 38 mobile preschool services.
Minister for Education and Early Childhood Learning, Sarah Mitchell said the funding provided certainty to parents that no matter their financial situation their children would be able to continue with their preschool education.
