Our learning support and mentoring programs in 90 Australian communities directly help children in need achieve their goals through education.
View all programs Georgie Dent: fighting for every child to access early learning
In Australia, we're all comfortable with the idea that education should be publicly funded once a child turns five or six. At that point, when they walk through the school gates ... that's when we're comfortable. No one ever says, ‘You had a child, you pay for their schooling.’ People say that about younger children all the time, ‘You should pay for their childcare. If you can't afford to do that, you shouldn't have them.
In this episode, we chat with Georgie Dent, CEO of The Parenthood and one of Australia’s leading advocates for children, parents, carers and families. She makes a powerful case for why every child should have access to high-quality, affordable early learning and care, and how failing to provide that risks entrenching disadvantage from the very beginning.
“What we know about brain development is what happens between zero and five is so important. If we don't get that right, then when that little person walks through the school gates, we've almost locked in a disadvantage,” Georgie says.
“Getting those children to participate in early education and care will put them on a much more secure path to arrive at school ready to learn. But for a variety of reasons, children with disadvantage are less likely to have that opportunity.”
Georgie breaks down what recent reforms in the sector mean for families, why scrapping the activity test is a major win for equity and the final piece of the puzzle she’ll be pushing for next to make access to quality early childhood education truly universal.
Conversation highlights
Georgie talks to Doug about:
- [1:20] Her most memorable education moment
- [3:28] Why early childhood education matters – and the big shift needed to bring us in line with other countries
- [4:46] Australia’s ‘childcare deserts’ and other barriers to early learning for children experiencing disadvantage
- [8:05] Why the activity test was poor policy and how removing it improves equity
- [11:45] The time she invited then-Prime Minister Tony Abbott to join her on her childcare run
- [14:36] Her reaction to the recent reforms and the power of advocacy to spearhead change
- [18:06] How Gonski-style funding could transform early childhood education and make it accessible and affordable for all
Watch the full conversation below via YouTube or listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
