SA Government directs $3.5 million in funding to alleviate childcare desert in Kingston

For over 10 years, the community of Kingston in South Australia’s south east have been lobbying for more early childhood education and care (ECEC) support, and now the wait is finally over. 

A combined long day care service and preschool will be built on the site of the Kingston Community School thanks to $3.5 million in state government funding announced for the project. 

State Education Minister Blair Boyer delivered the news to the Kingston SE Early Learning and Childcare Services Working Group‘s Kirsty Starling in a phone call recently, a message which left her “blown away”.

There are currently between 40 and 50 children on the waiting list for care at the existing ECEC service in Kingston, and Ms Starling is hopeful the new service will encourage people to stay in the area, describing the news as “life changing” for the town. 

“It’s going to be amazing because everyone can be together — education and the transition from childcare to kindergarten to school can be seamless,” she told the ABC.

Commenting on the funding SA Education Minister Blair Boyer said ECEC provision was “just as important in regional areas as it was in the city to bring more people, especially women, into the workforce.”

To read the original coverage of this story, please see here.