Cobar Preschool, Cobar Mobile Children’s Resources and Murrin Bridge Preschool will all receive a $7,000 State Government grant which is designed to help improve access to pre-school for children in rural and remote communities.
Member for Barwon Kevin Humphries and Minister for Early Childhood Education Leslie Williams last week announced that 33 pre-schools in the Barwon Electorate would receive the grant.
Mrs Williams said the initiative will provide one-off grants of $7,000 to community pre-schools in outer regional, remote and very remote areas.
“This government is delivering on its pre-election commitment for universal access to quality early childhood education in rural and remote areas,” Mrs Williams said.
“We have long recognised that students achieve better results when they are able to access quality early childhood education before they enrol at a primary school level.”
The program is part of the government’s rural and remote education blueprint.
“It is designed to support pre-schools’ outreach initiatives, improving engagement and universal access for hard to reach and vulnerable children in these areas,” Mrs Williams said.
Mr Humphries said most pre-schools across the electorate are eligible to benefit from the program.
“This initiative helps early educators connect with families who are not sending their children to pre-school and ensures children who are located in rural areas are able to access to a quality early childhood education,” Mr Humphries said.
He said services will be required to agree to grant conditions and use the funding for activities such as: developing information resources to support parents in accessing and engaging with the pre-school; engaging with the local Aboriginal community to encourage pre-school participation; establishing partnerships with local schools, councils or bus providers, to provide transport to pre-school for local children; and providing IT skills training to pre-school staff to increase the online presence of the pre-school.
