The Palaszczuk Government is expanding its successful State Delivered Kindergarten program to 14 new rural and remote communities across the state.
Education Minister Grace Grace joined Assistant Education Minister and Member for Keppel Brittany Lauga today to announce the new kindy services had been launched across Queensland.
"The Palaszczuk Government introduced the State Delivered Kindergarten program in 2016 to give more children in rural and remote parts of Queensland access to kindy," Ms Grace said.
"The State Delivered Kindergarten program has been so successful we have expanded to another 14 schools in 2022.
"This means we now have 134 kindy programs being delivered at 116 rural and remote state schools.
"Some of these remote schools have multiple campuses and therefore multiple kindy programs.
"That includes five state schools in Central Queensland at Byfield, Ambrose, Bororen, Glenden and Winton State Schools, bringing the total number of State Delivered Kindergartens to 40 across the region.
"The expansion of this program means up to 177 extra children will have the opportunity to attend a face-to face kindy program at their local state school.
"And up to 800 children are anticipated to attend State Delivered Kindergarten across Queensland during this year.
"This is a no-cost program for Queensland families with four-year-old children in selected rural and remote locations.
"The Palaszczuk Government cares about providing Queensland kids with a world-class education no matter whether they live, and that is why we are delivering programs like this to rural and remote areas.
Local Member for Keppel and Assistant Education Minister Brittany Lauga said the State Delivered Kindergarten program started with 11 state schools, but more and more were added off the back of its success.
"Byfield is a perfect example of a community that will greatly benefit from the Palaszczuk Government's State Delivered Kindergarten program," Ms Lauga said.
"Previously, many families in the Byfield community were unable to access a local kindy program for their children before they started Prep.
"But now Byfield State School is able to offer kindy to local kids thanks to this program.
"We all know how important kindy is for children's learning and development so this is wonderful news for local families in Keppel.
"State Delivered Kindergarten is one of the many initiatives we have in Queensland to ensure all children have access to a kindergarten program in the year before school, regardless of where they live."
Byfield State School Principal Stacey Cottam said the school community was very happy to be able to offer a kindergarten program to local families.
"This program is a great fit for our school and for early childhood learning in our community," Ms Cottam said.
"We're in a small rural community and because of our location most of our kids weren't able to access kindy before starting school.
"We have two children enrolled in kindergarten now, who will attend two days a week this semester and three days a week in second semester.
"This will make a huge difference for the children in our community."
