NANGWARRY preschool will be suspended in 2020 unless it can secure the six enrolments required by State Government policy to fund the program.
South Australian Education Minister John Gardner also shot down a proposed integrated learning program which would combine preschool children with the primary school cohort.
The minister said alternatives available to families, including sending their children to Penola’s McKay Children’s Centre or Kalangadoo Kindergarten, meant the Nangwarry facility did not meet requirements for an integrated option.
Wattle Range Council last week declared it would lobby the State Government on behalf of the facility in a bid to save the preschool and support the community.
However, the Nangwarry Primary and Preschool Governing Council received a letter from Mr Gardner which reaffirmed the government’s policy stance, with the preschool program’s suspension now likely in 2020.
While there have been four preschool enrolments to the facility for next year, Mr Gardner said the preschool’s circumstances “do not apply” for alternative programs.
“In certain circumstances where there are fewer than six eligible preschool enrolments and there is no access to an alternative preschool, schools may consider integrating preschool children within the first years of school,” Mr Gardner said.
“Those circumstances do not apply in this case as there are alternative local preschools with capacity to accommodate the enrolments.”
Governing council chairperson Rebekah Wettles rejected the suggested alternatives, stating many families in the Nangwarry community could not afford the continuous trips.
“Some people work away and some people cannot financially travel that much,” Ms Wettles said.
“If they go to a different school most parents want their children to stay at one whole school, they do not want to keep swapping and changing.
“If parents have one child at one school and another at a different school, it also becomes difficult to do more than one drop off and pick up.”
Ms Wettles warned the preschool program’s suspension could also lead to a waste of resources.
“We have a preschool teacher who will then be absorbed into the main school staff,” she said.
“This will then have a profound affect on the teachers who are already working.
“It will also have impact on the programs that have already been set up, primarily on the arts curriculum.
“The Department of Education is not ensuring access to preschool for all those entitled as it will be unattainable to many with the current plan.
“We are just asking the minister to reconsider because we believe this will be detrimental to the children’s access to preschool and will have effects on the primary school as a whole.”
