Ministers statements: early childhood education
Jacinta ALLAN (Bendigo East – Premier) (14:08): As every parent in this chamber would know, one of the most chaotic parts of the morning of every school day is getting out of the house and getting the kids to school – making sure they are out of bed and they have had their breakfast, cleaned their teeth, packed their bags and got their shoes on. I am not just living my experience, I am living the experience of parents right across the state every single day to get the kids to school on time. That task is made even tougher if you have got kids at school and kids at kinder. That dreaded double drop-off is a real challenge for parents right across the state. It is stressful, it is frustrating and it is just one more headache, frankly, and we need to look at ways we can support parents to avoid those sorts of headaches, which is why we are making it easier by building more kinders on school sites or right next door to schools. It means a single drop-off, one gate, one park, and you know that you have got your kids to school or kinder safely at the start of the day. It saves time, it saves money and it saves stress as well.
That is why just last week I was really pleased to announce another eight kindergartens that will be built on new school sites to start from term 1, 2026. Not only are we building new kinders on school sites; it also means a thousand extra kinder places for families across the state in communities like Cranbourne North, Armstrong Creek, Reservoir, Clyde, South Morang, Gordon, Lysterfield and in our community of Kennington as well. This is on top of the 60 that we have already undertaken – 20 opening next year, another 21 in 2026 – and this is on top of free kinder for parents right across the state, helping young Victorians get the best learning, helping families with cost-of-living pressures and helping families with those getting-out-of-the-house pressures as well.