A world-renowned early childhood development and policy expert has called on Australia to follow Sri Lanka’s lead and boost funding for early childhood education.
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The call from Professor Ted Melhuish comes hot on the heels of Labor pledging a $1.75 billion funding boost which will guarantee access to subsidised preschool for around 700,000 children a year.
The leading academic at the University of Wollongong’s Early Start Research said Australia should increase spending on early childhood education or risk being left behind by its international trading partners.
It was during Prof Melhuish’s capacity as a UNICEF Ambassador that he made a presentation to “Building Brains, Building Futures: The Sri Lanka Early Childhood Development High-Level Meeting” in July this year.
“The message I gave them was that in order to provide an infrastructure for the level of economic development that Sri Lanka wants for its future generations, they needed to improve their early year services, particularly in the area of early education,” he said.
“I pointed out that other Asian countries such as Singapore, which Sri Lanka sees as a major competitor, had taken on board the international research and had started to invest much more heavily in early education.
“They were impressed….and now the minister of finance has announced a massive increase in government spending on early education.”
Prof Melhuish says Australia should follow suit if it wants to maintain its economic prosperity.
You need it to start at the preschool level – three years olds and upwards – not wait until they're six.
- Professor Ted Melhuish
“If you look at those countries at the top of the spending table on early education, they're all countries that are economically extremely successful,” he said.
“The nature of modern economies means you need to have a highly educated population, because unskilled jobs are virtually disappearing while high-skill jobs are multiplying and diversifying.
“How do you get a highly skilled workforce? You make sure the educational level of the population is very high.
“And the evidence shows that in order to get that very high level of education you need it to start at the preschool level – three years olds and upwards – not wait until they're six.”
Agron Latifi
Wollongong born and bred. I love reporting about the Illawarra region and have been doing it for more than 20 years. I've moved into sport recently after covering the education round for the last five plus years for the Illawarra Mercury. It's been a great pleasure.
Wollongong born and bred. I love reporting about the Illawarra region and have been doing it for more than 20 years. I've moved into sport recently after covering the education round for the last five plus years for the Illawarra Mercury. It's been a great pleasure.
