JOIN THRIVE BY FIVE TO HELP FUTURE OF OUR KIDS

The answer is early childhood education. The questions are many: How can we ensure better outcomes for children? How can we enhance mental health and wellbeing?

How can we improve literacy and numeracy? How can we set young people up for academic success? How can we reduce social expenditure on unemployment costs?

How can we reduce health and justice system costs? How can we support the nation’s recovery from this pandemic? How can we reduce the pressure on families? How can we support women’s workforce participation?

Yep, the answer to all of these questions is early childhood education.

Did you know that the early years are the most important years of life? Nearly all of a child’s development occurs within the first five years. From birth to five a child’s brain develops more rapidly than at any other time.

By age five, 90 per cent of a child’s brain is developed. A child’s early experiences matter immensely, with research clearly showing that the children who have had access to more years of high-quality early learning do better. They do better at school, they do better at everything.

Yet, in Australia, we don’t have universal access to early childhood education and care.

One in five Australian children is already developmentally vulnerable before they have even started school. The cost of childcare has risen faster than the cost of electricity and simply isn’t affordable. In Australia we pay the staff educating our youngest children less than we pay our cleaners.

Early childhood educators in Australia earn half the national average wage.

How can we afford to pay staff a pittance when so much is developmentally at stake?

The period from birth to five is the most important time in human development. It is a great source of employment, especially in regional Australia, and especially for women. It has huge benefits for young working families. It offers great support for distressed parents. And, participation in high-quality early child development services yields longterm educational benefits that improve a nation’s productivity.

Join the Thrive by Five campaign at thrivebyfive.org.au.

Dr Ali Black is a Senior Lecturer in Education at the University of the Sunshine Coast. ablack1@usc.edu.au