South Australia's kindy and pre-school centres rated the best quality in Australia in 2018
The Bertram Hawker Kindergarten at Glen Osmond, named after a South Australian kindergarten pioneer, was given a national excellent rating again in 2018.
South Australian early childhood education and care services were found to be leading the nation in 2018, exceeding the expected standards set by the National Quality Standard (NQS) for providing high quality care and education to children.
Almost 80% of preschool services managed under the education department were officially rated as exceeding the NQS, compared to 59% nationally. Bertram Hawker Kindergarten at Glen Osmond, Alberton Preschool, Darlington Children’s Centre and Mount Gambier Children’s Centre all received the highest possible recognition as excellent.
With about 17,000 children enrolled in its 410 preschools for 2016, South Australia is building on the early commitment of those dedicated to childhood education.
The Kindergarten Union of South Australia was founded in 1905 and the first kindergarten opened in 1906 in Franklin Street, Adelaide, for the poorest children. Another opened in the inner western Bowden in 1908 and by 1939 there were 10 in Adelaide and suburbs. A kindergarten training college opened in 1907.
In 1985, the state government took over the kindergarten union. This changed the emphasis to childcare, rather than Montessori learning methods used by the kindergarten pioneers. Bertram Hawker Kindergarten at Glen Osmond is named after one of those pioneers.
With Australia lowly ranked among OECD countries for early childhood education spending, South Australia has hired 100 more preschool teachers to meet new national standards on child-to-teacher ratios.
In 2016, most kindergartens had 11 children to each educator. The ratio previously averaged 13 children to a teacher.
South Australia is the only state to ensure preschools in disadvantaged areas have extra teachers, although the 1:10 ratio is the standard in New South Wales, Tasmania and Western Australia.
