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The Statistics

In 2009 Free Kindergartens provided a sessional preschool service to around 56% of children enrolled.  This represents a considerable reduction from only a small number of years ago in 2007 when a sessional preschool service was provided to 97% of children enrolled.

In 2007, 1,215 children attended a Free Kindergarten for more than 4 hours a day (all-day care) and this jumped to 16,822 children in 2009.

In 2007, 39,362 children attended a Free Kindergarten for less than 4 hours (part-day sessions) and this number dropped to 21, 710 children in 2009.

In 2007, 3,118 children attended a Free Kindergarten that provided a mixture of full-day and part-day options and this number dropped to 814 children in 2009.

The number of children enrolled in Free Kindergartens across the country has also changed dramatically and is a lot less.  The Table below shows that while the number of Kindergartens has continued to increase slightly over the years, enrolment numbers have dropped as more kindergartens have adopted the longer-day model. So while most kindergartens have waiting lists, their capacity to accept children has reduced, and the costs to parents and taxpayers has gone up.

Enrolments and number of Free Kindergartens as at 1 July (2000 to 2009) Ministry of Education statistics 

So What's the Problem?

The purpose of the Free Kindergarten supported by the State as an education service that is part of the State System is to provide parents with a choice of morning and afternoon sessions to prepare children for school in the year or two before they start school.   However, today, when parents talk about their child attending kindy - it literallly means that kindy starts in the morning, goes over the lunch-hour and ends in the afternoon. 

What has been the cause of this massive and sudden decrease in the number of under 4 hour (part-day) places in kindergartens?  

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