Newslines Radio: SDN Redfern teaches Koori kids to love learning
More and more Aboriginal families from Redfern in Sydney are sending their children to the local SDN Children’s Education and Care Centre to make sure they get the early education they need.
More and more Aboriginal families from Redfern in Sydney are sending their children to the local SDN Children’s Education and Care Centre to make sure they get the early education they need.
In this Newslines Radio program, SDN Redfern Koori worker Judy Jarrett talks about why early childhood education is important and some of the strategies her centre uses to make Aboriginal families feel welcome.
Increasing access to early childhood education is a major focus for the Australian Government’s agenda on Closing the Gap.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced last month that the Closing the Gap early childhood target that all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander four-year-olds in remote communities will have access to early childhood education, will be met this year.
As Judy tells Newslines: “All kids should be able to go to a preschool before they go to big school because they need to get that little step up, especially Koori kids.”
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Ensuring all Indigenous children have access to quality childhood education is a key priority under Closing the Gap.
In her Closing the Gap: Prime Minister’s Report 2013, Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced that this year the first Closing the Gap target will be met: ensuring all Indigenous four-year-olds living in remote communities have access to early childhood education within five years, or by 2013.