AEU policy is based on a commitment to universal access to at least one year of preschool education for all Australian children, as an integral part of the early childhood education offered by a high quality, properly resourced system of public education. This page tells about our policies, plans and campaigns for preschool education.

Contents

What’s New
Report on Government Services 2007 Early Childhood Education 2007 Update
Where there's a will, it's child's play: the way forward to quality preschool education for all
AEU Welcomes National Strategy as Australia Lags on Early Childhood Education
National Preschool Inquiry Report
Campaign Materials and Background Information
Reports and Submissions
Early Childhood Policy
Towards a National Plan for Preschool Education
Media Releases

What’s new

• Indigenous Early Childhood Education Seminar, 26 May 2009

• AEU Briefing Paper: Universal Preschool Education for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children Michaela Kronemann, October 2007

• Report on Government Services 2007 Early Childhood Education 2007 Update

• Where there's a will, it's child's play: the way forward to quality preschool education for all AEU Discussion Paper - by Michaela Kronemann

• AEU Welcomes National Strategy as Australia Lags on Early Childhood Education Media Release - 29 January 2007

National Preschool Inquiry Report

Please go to the Inquiry page to access all relevant resources.

• Address to AEU Federal Women's Conference, 2-3 October 2004 [ppt format]

• Report and Implications of the Independent Inquiry into the provision of Universal Access to High Quality Preschool Education in Australia, Kathy Walker and Michaela Kronemann, paper given at the XXIV World Congress of OMEP, One World: Many Childhoods, Carlton Crest Hotel, Melbourne, 21-24 July 2004

• Independent Inquiry Report

• Report Findings

• Report Recommendations

• Inquiry Report Order Form

• Hands Up, June 2004 Parliamentary Brief

• AEU presentation at state/territory forums: background to the national inquiry [ppt format]

• 40,000 Australian children denied a preschool education Media Release, 25 May, 2004

  Support the Inquiry's recommendations and call on all political parties to:

  1. Support universal access to free high quality, preschool education.

  2. Develop a national plan for preschool education.

  3. Reintroduce Commonwealth Funding, for preschool education so that the Commonwealth and state and territory governments jointly provide the full costs of preschool education
  
  Email politicians.

Campaign Materials and Background Information

• New Zealand moves to free early childhood education

• Hands Up, June 2004 Parliamentary Brief

• Charter for Public Education

• Preschool and preparatory/Reception programs and age of entry across Australia

• AEU presentation at state/territory forums: background to the national inquiry [ppt format]

• For our children's sake: we need a national vision for preschool education

Fact Sheets

• AEU Federal Election Fact Sheet No.1 -Early Childhood Education

• AEU Federal Election Fact Sheet No.4 -The Structures of Pre School Education

• AEU Federal Election Fact Sheet No.6 -Early Childhood Education for all Indigenous Children

• AEU Federal Election Fact Sheet No.7 -The AEU's 10 Year Plan for Early Childhood Education

• AEU National Preschool Education Campaign: Fact Sheet No 5, October 2002 Early Childhood Education in Tasmania

• AEU National Preschool Education Campaign: Fact Sheet No 4, July 2001 OECD Report Identifies Policy Lessons for Early Childhood Education

• AEU National Preschool Education Campaign: Fact Sheet No 3, July 2001 Preschool Education in Western Australia

• AEU National Preschool Education Campaign: Fact Sheet No 2, July 2001 The Structures of Preschool Education in Australia

• AEU National Preschool Education Campaign: Fact Sheet No 1, July 2001 Preschool Education is a National Issue

Reports and Submissions

• Where there's a will, it's child's play: the way forward to quality preschool education for all AEU Discussion Paper - by Michaela Kronemann

• Report on Government Services 2007 Early Childhood Education 2007 Update

• Report on Government Services 2006 Early Childhood Education 2006 Update

• Report on Government Services 2005 Early Childhood Education 2005 Update

• Report on Government Services 2004 Early Childhood Education Update 2004

• AEU Response to the Consultation Paper Towards the Development of a National Agenda for Early Childhood - May 2003

• Report on Government Services 2003 - Early Childhood Education Update 2003

• Early Childhood Education Developments in Tasmania - AEU Research Report by Michaela Kronemann, October 2002

• Professor Helen May -- Keynote address to AEU, Early Childhood Roundtable, 25 October 2001. "Early Childhood Care and Education in Aoteara -- New Zealand: An Overview of history, policy and curriculum".

• No Small Mattter - Quality Preschools Benefit Children and Society - An AEU Research Report prepared by Robin Hull and Sally Edsall, September 2001

  50 representatives of a wide variety of groups interested in early childhood education - teachers, parents, academics, unionists, media and politicians - gathered in Melbourne for the launch of "No Small Matter", an AEU report on the importance of preschool education.

  Read the AEU Media Release and The Age's Report.

• The Western Australian Model of Preschool Education - Research Report by Michaela Kronemann, July 2001

• AEU Submission to OECD Thematic Review of Early Childhood Education and Care - June 2000. You can see the AEU submission to the OECD Review here.

• Towards a National Plan for Preschool Education

  This discussion paper was prepared in December 1998 for the AEU by Michaela Kronemann in consultation with the AEU's National Early Childhood Committee, the Federal Office and Branches and Associated Bodies of the AEU.

  • Recommendations from Publication
    
  • Order form for Publication
    
  • "Children At The Top" AECA Conference 1999 - Michaela Kronemann, 1999
    

• Early Childhood Policy - 2007
  
  
• The Vinson Report on Preschools in New South Wales
  Commissioned by the NSW Teachers Federation, the report The Education and Care of Our Young Children: Good Beginnings by Professor Tony Vinson was launched on 18 May in the NSW Parliament House Theatrette. The launch was supported by the Public Education Alliance (parents, teachers and principals). Information about the study and a copy of Professor Vinson's report is available.

• New Zealand moves to free early childhood education

Media Releases

• AEU Welcomes National Strategy as Australia Lags on Early Childhood Education Media Release - 29 January 2007

• 42,000 Australian children still missing out on preschool education Media Release - 9 August 2005

• AEU welcomes ALP's national focus on early childhood Media Release - 27 September, 2004

• National Preschool Education Inquiry Report
  40,000 Australian children denied a preschool education Media Release, 25 May, 2004

• AEU launches its Charter for Public Education Media Release - 20 May, 2004

• 40,000 Australian children denied a preschool education Media Release, 25 May, 2004

• 40,000 Children Miss Out on Preschool Education - 21/10/03 AEU Federal Office

• Early Childhood Education Concern: call for budget boost and Federal responsibility for preschools - 09/06/03 AEU Federal Office

• Time to Stand up for the Small Ones - 25/10/01 - AEU Federal Office

• ALP Schools Policy Provides a Clear Choice for the Nation - 24/10/01 - AEU Federal Office

• Democrats and Greens Back Public Education - 23/10/01 - AEU Federal Office