Extra $1.2-million for pre-schools

The Victorian Government will provide an extra $1.2 million in funding over the next year to pre-schools and kindergartens around the state.

This will increase by 2% the per-capita government funding to the state's more than 1600 pre-schools.

The funding boost comes on top of an annual Victorian Government budget of more than $58 million to the state's pre-schools and kindergartens.

Government funding to pre-schools has increased every year since 1994: by 18.6% over that period to this year's standard pre-school grant of $949 per child.

The 1999 pre-school grant levels are:

• $949 in the standard category.
• $501 per child in a day-care centre that provides a preschool program.
• $1188 per child in the rural pre-school category for up to 45 enrolments.
• $1782 per child  to a maximum of $17,820  in a small rural pre-school.

The Government also provides an extra $50 per half-year for children who have a Health Card or whose parents have one.

The number of Victorian children attending kindergarten has increased from 55,861 in 1994 (91% of those eligible) to 60,101 in 1998 (93% of eligible youngsters  the highest rate ever).

(News Release, Office of the Minister for Youth and Community Services, February 2, 1999)