National Partnership Agreement on Early Childhood Education
On 29 November 2008, the Council of Australian Governments endorsed a new National Partnership Agreement on Early Childhood Education. Under the Agreement, the Commonwealth and State and Territory governments have committed to ensuring that all children will have access to a quality early childhood education program by 2013, delivered by a four-year university-trained early childhood teacher, for 15 hours a week, 40 weeks a year, in the year before formal schooling.
The Commonwealth’s commitment of $970 million over five years includes $955 million to states and territories to support their implementation of the Universal Access initiative. Details of the funding are in the table below.
Table 1: Funding under the National Partnership Agreement on Early Childhood Education
| New South Wales |
10.2 |
21.3 |
26.9 |
82.3 |
137.9 |
278.6 |
| Victoria |
7.4 |
15.3 |
19.3 |
59.1 |
109.5 |
210.6 |
| Queensland |
11.2 |
23.4 |
29.5 |
90.3 |
97.6 |
252.0 |
| Western Australia |
3.7 |
7.7 |
9.7 |
29.7 |
47.6 |
98.4 |
| South Australia |
2.5 |
5.2 |
6.6 |
20.2 |
30.9 |
65.4 |
| Tasmania |
0.7 |
1.5 |
1.9 |
5.9 |
10.4 |
20.4 |
| Australian Capital Territory |
0.4 |
0.9 |
1.2 |
3.6 |
7.1 |
13.2 |
| Northern Territory |
0.7 |
1.5 |
1.9 |
5.9 |
5.9 |
15.9 |
| Total |
37.0 |
77.0 |
97.0 |
297.0 |
447.0 |
955.0 |
Note: $3 million has been set aside in each year for data development and evaluation. Total funding is $970m.
The Australian Government, and state and territory governments have developed and endorsed the national Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Universal Access Strategy.
For more information on the National Partnership on Early Childhood Education, please see the fact sheet below or see the COAG website for a copy of the Agreement.
The Australian Government has entered into Bilateral Agreements with State and Territory governments. These Agreements specify the actions and strategies to be undertaken by each jurisdiction to achieve universal access. The actions and strategies will vary across jurisdictions to take into account the different challenges facing each jurisdiction. The Agreements also detail the performance benchmarks each state has committed to achieving, including participation rates (including for children from disadvantaged backgrounds and Indigenous children), hours, teachers and cost.
For information about the commitments in the Bilateral Agreements see the Bilateral Agreement Summary.
State by state fact sheets are also available on the MyChild website.
A copy of each Bilateral Agreement is available at the Ministerial Council for Federal Financial Relations website.
Media releases relating to the signing of each Bilateral Agreement are also available.
Under the National Partnership for Early Childhood Education, the Australian Government and the state and territory governments are committed to publishing annual reports on progress towards achieving Universal Access to early childhood education by 2013. 2010 Annual Reports are now available.
Evaluation of the National Partnership Agreement on Early Childhood Education: annual progress report 2010
An independent evaluation of the National Partnership Agreement on Early Childhood Education is being undertaken in 2010-2014 to assess its effectiveness in achieving universal access outcomes. The 2010 evaluation annual report shows progress to 31 December 2009 and includes a literature review, evaluation framework and an exploration of challenges, including data. It should be noted that significant caveats exist around the data used in the report and that it should be read in conjunction with the footnotes provided. It is neither possible nor appropriate to compare data as there is currently no national consistency around its collection.