Director of Griffith Preschool Kindergarten, Heather Gowing says that many children in the local community are at an unprecedented disadvantage as a direct result of scheme, and parents wanting to take advantage of it by enrolling their children in multiple preschools.

"Community funded preschools are based upon the recommendation of how many hours children should attend preschool the year before attending school which is two days per week" Mrs Gowing said.

"Free preschool for two days a week provides families access to early childhood education that wasn't previously available to them however there are other families who enroll their children in multiple preschools which reduces this accessibility for other children."

According to Mrs Gowing, she said she felt a 'moral obligation' to all children which was why she chose to only offer two days to any one child.

"This then opens up space for additional children who wouldn't otherwise have been able to attend preschool" Mrs Gowing said.

"I feel that this is more important than just filling in the spots to capacity for those who want their children enrolled in as many days as possible, because the sad reality is that there is a little person sitting at home, who isn't going anywhere and is missing out."

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Mrs Gowing suggests instead that the two days of government funded preschool be complimented with days at long daycare or family daycare instead.

"We are really lucky here in Griffith as we have a lot of high quality, great learning environments which are community based, non for profit preschools" Mrs Gowing said.

"There are all different service types where families can access early learning for their children and parents need to be conscious of that."

Director of Western Riverina Family Day Care, Helen Walker told The Area News that she had seen a drop in the number of preschool aged children enrolled at family day care, but would encourage parents to consider accessing a range of different childcare services.

"Family daycare is perhaps the most flexible out there and compliments pre school services nicely" Mrs Walker said.

According to Mrs Gowing, she just wanted to make childcare as 'accessible as possible'.

"We just need to make people aware of how pre school is working in our community because most families don't know this and we want childcare to be as accessible as possible" Mrs Gowing said.

"It is important that families are conscious of what double enrolment means for other children in the community."

More information about the COVID-19 free preschool funding scheme can be found here.

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