Australia’s Largest Christian News Site

The Department of Education and Child Development in South Australia is rolling out earlier childhood education in 2026 — all at the cost of $1.9 billion. Yes, that was billion with a ‘b’.

The goal of this initiative is to reduce the number of children entering the school system who are ‘developmentally vulnerable’ from 28.15 per cent to 15 per cent between 2026 and 2032, with a twenty-year timeframe to achieve this goal.

Any parent with a toddler and a TV would have been inundated with the government’s advertisement slogan for this initiative: ‘Start sooner. Go further.’ It implies that any parent not starting their child sooner won’t go as far in education, leaving us all with the fear of having our children left behind. A clever slogan indeed.

This is all based on the Royal Commission initiated by Julia Gillard. According to earlychildhood.sa.gov.au, the conclusion of this Royal Commission is that ‘two years of preschool are more beneficial than one’.

Choosing Julia Gillard — someone without any children — is an interesting decision. They might as well have David Speirs investigating drug reform or Pauline Hanson being the advocate for Muslims in Australia.

Upon skim-reading the Royal Commission, it is very clinical and leans heavily towards getting our children into preschool and out-of-hours school care. Recommendation 12 is particularly intriguing, as it suggests we are about to be inundated with information emphasising the importance of putting our kids in childcare at three years old.

Why the government always feels the need to propagandise its agenda, I don’t know, but it’s all too familiar. If it’s such a good thing, why do we need to be ‘convinced’?

The Government Has a Lot to Gain

It’s not hard to figure out the maths: the more people work, the more people pay tax. The more people pay tax, the better it is for the government and our economy in general. People who are earning are more likely to spend money and have loans and mortgages. It’s better for the government to have more kids in care and more parents at work. It’s a great incentive for the economy — but is it great for our kids?

The end result is that the education system has a greater influence on the formation of our kids than we do as families in those early formative years.

We Have a Lot to Lose

Besides the obvious — that we get less time with our precious children — there are many concerns with this earlier childhood education program being rolled out.

Firstly, one of the more sinister issues is the fact that we are giving three-year-olds to strangers. The ABC reports:

We have identified almost 150 childcare workers convicted, charged, or accused of sexual abuse and inappropriate conduct. Half of the 42 people convicted were sentenced in the past five years alone, and another 14 are currently before the courts.

We are being encouraged to expose our children to more of this?

Although we have Working With Children Checks (WWCC), no check protects children from a perpetrator’s first offence. We also have terrible regulation between states. Someone who has failed their state’s clearance can come over into your state and apply for a WWCC.

In fact, the Early Childhood website is simultaneously promoting the kindergarten and funding support for educators to secure jobs and enter the industry. We are making it easier to enter the industry, which makes it harder to screen for safety.

I’m not suggesting there is a paedophile behind every rock or at every playground. But we don’t know all our childcare workers personally, and the state is unable to protect our children — and it has proven as much.

I’m predicting we will have another Royal Commission in a decade, looking into all the misconduct that will take place as a result of this kindergarten rollout.

The First Five Years of Life

Secondly, is it really that children need to attend kindy earlier to not be ‘developmentally vulnerable’? How is the environment of kindy able to measure this kind of goal?

There have been countless studies on the importance of brain development in the first five years of life. As John Holt infers in his book How Children Learn, learning happens authentically when children are given space in their own time and the safety of their own home — in an unforced and non-competitive environment.

Why is this research being ignored? Why was the first conclusion to take kids out of their parents’ care?

The modern age is pulling away at the thread that makes family family.

It appears the government has much to gain, even as we lose precious time with our kids.

A Better Way Forward

We have been provided with a biblical solution to all our modern problems. We have a living Word that isn’t stagnant, and remains relevant in every age.

We need a reset in our cultural attitude and belief towards having kids. Our children are a blessing, not a hindrance.

If marriage hasn’t done it already, children have a way of revealing the worst parts of our character and personality. We come home tired, and we snap; we lack patience and put our own needs and desires first at times. Children reveal to us that we are all selfish.

This is a gift to us from God — to reveal our shortcomings; a hard, but good, lesson for us.

When our kids sin as toddlers, teenagers, or adults, we can love them — showing them the forgiveness, love, and mercy of the Father. When Jesus tells us to ‘go and make disciples’, we have literally been given little humans with whom we can fulfil that mandate.

As we read in Genesis 1:28: “And God blessed them. And God said, ‘Be fruitful and multiply’.”

Having children is part of the blessing of God to humanity, and just by being in a family unit, we are living in that blessing. That’s why it’s so sad — for everybody — when that unit breaks down.

Children are a beautiful gift out of the abundant goodness of our heavenly Father. This puts their worth in our lives into perspective.

If you need to use childcare or kindergarten because you choose to, it’s okay. This is not a judgement on your choices.

But we must ask the question: why is it that every family aid and support encourages us to institutionalise our kids further and makes it harder for us to have a parent stay at home with them?

I’m not buying what they’re selling.

___

Image courtesy of Adobe.