Sarah Oliver
The state government is expanding kindergartens across Victoria, focusing on growing communities including in the west.
Early Childhood Minister Ingrid Stitt has announced the Victorian government will invest $14.7 million in an extra nine Building Blocks Capacity grants, building and expanding kindergarten services to create an extra 356 places across the state.
The grants will improve access to local early childhood services by supporting new kindergartens to be built in some of the state’s fastest-growing areas, and supporting existing services to create extra infrastructure capacity for more kids to enrol in funded kindergarten.
Projects funded in this round include the new Merrifield South Integrated Child, Family and Community Centre in Hume.
The state government has also invested almost $5 billion to deliver a full 15 hours of three-year-old Kinder to children across the state.
As part of this roll-out, the government is co-investing $1.68 billion with the early childhood sector to build and expand kindergarten facilities across the state.
Every new Victorian primary school set to open from 2021 will also have a kindergarten on-site or next door.
“We’re expanding and opening new kinders in Victoria’s fastest-growing areas, making sure every family has a great local kinder nearby to start their kids’ education journeys well,” Ms Stitt said.
