DESPITE a Government campaign to recruit more educators to the industry, many families, in particular those in regional areas, are still grappling with a childcare placement shortage.
The Regional Australia Institute (RAI) has endorsed a new report released last week, which has highlighted the vast inequities regional families face in accessing early childhood education and care.
The report includes more than 150 stories from regional families about the challenges they continue to face in accessing education and care for their young children.
RAI CEO Liz Ritchie said the report painted a bleak picture about the state of the early childhood education and care sector in regional Australia.
“This issue needs urgent collaborative action from government, business, the not-for-profit sector, and communities. Without such action, our regional kids will continue to miss out on the rich rewards of early childhood education and care. The structure of many regional communities is vastly different in comparison to large centres and metropolitan cities. Some areas will need tangible support to address their supply gaps,” Ms Ritchie said.
“Working parents make an extremely valuable contribution to the economies of our regional communities. If we are able to better support them, by ensuring their children can access early childhood education and care, we not only help the next generation to thrive, we also help a regional city thrive too.”
