Two years are better than one

Providing universal access to preschool programs for all three-year-old children is an achievable and desirable policy goal for Australia.

With two thirds of three-year-olds accessing early education and care (ECEC) services, Australia already has the foundations of a universal preschool program. The challenge is to:

• make sure all three-year-olds receive the 'dose' of high quality early learning through a dedicated preschool program that will have a sustained impact on their development
• ensure the children currently missing out due to financial and non-financial barriers have the opportunity to participate.

What next?

The Mitchell Institute recommends that as an immediate and low-cost first step, the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) agree to commission a scoping study into three-year preschool programs.

Key recommendation

COAG should commission a scoping study into universal three-year-old preschool programs for Australia. The study should be completed by the end of 2017 and should identify:

• delivery gaps and opportunities
• core process and structural quality elements
• strategies to address barriers to access for priority cohorts
• jurisdiction-specific implementation options
• improvements in data collection needed to track impact.

Fact sheets in this series

• Preschool programs for 3 year olds (PDF, 202.64 KB)
• International preschool programs for 3 year olds (PDF, 110.89 KB)
• Designing a preschool program (PDF, 265.51 KB)
• An additional year of preschool – an achievable reform (PDF, 216.07 KB)
• The impact of two years of preschool (PDF, 153 KB)
• Preschool programs in the ACT (PDF, 182.21 KB)
• Preschool programs in New South Wales (PDF, 184.45 KB)
• Preschool programs in the Northern Territory (PDF, 180.77 KB)
• Kindergarten programs in Queensland (PDF, 201.36 KB)
• Preschool programs in South Australia (PDF, 201.76 KB)
• Kindergarten programs in Tasmania (PDF, 200.29 KB)
• Kindergarten programs in Victoria (PDF, 172.69 KB)
• Kindergarten programs in Western Australia (PDF, 189.87 KB).