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The ACT government will introduce free, universal childcare for three-year-olds as part of its new strategy on early childhood education. Education Minister Yvette Berry has revealed the government aims to offer 15 hours a week or 600 hours a year free to parents, based on recommendations from a national review released in February, but the details are yet to be ironed out. Right now, only four-year-olds are offered free pre-school in the ACT, where childcare prices are the highest in the country. In a recent discussion paper, the government estimated up to 20 per cent of children aged between one and four years were missing out on early education and identified cost as a key barrier. "Over the coming months I will have a conversation with parents, the early childhood education sector, schools and the wider community about how, and therefore when, the government will be able to make this vital education opportunity universally available," Ms Berry said. A roll-out of the expanded scheme will begin with children who have the greatest needs but funding is yet to be determined, a government spokeswoman said. As a parallel, she confirmed the current scheme for four-year-old children cost the territory about $35.6 million a year. While Minister Berry acknowledged the plan would come with a price tag, she stressed equitable access to early childhood education was crucial to future development. "In their early years a child forms more than one million new neural connections each second," she said. "All of the foundational learning that happens before a child reaches school seriously affects [their] achievement." Last month, amid calls for a national scheme, NSW became the first state to announce universal access to pre-school for three-year-olds. But the proposal was slammed by childcare groups who claimed it only applied to community preschools and so cut out the 80 per cent of families who use long daycare. It is unclear if this criteria will also apply to the ACT model - still to be determined, according to the government spokeswoman. "A preliminary review of overseas examples has occurred, with more detailed review to occur as the government undertakes detailed design and consultation," she said. On the world stage, Australia falls well below the international average for investment in early childhood education, and just 15 per cent of three-year-olds attend pre-school, compared to an OECD average of 68.6 per cent. Minister Berry said the ACT would keep pressure on the federal government to deliver long-term funding to the sector, but a spokeswoman said the plan was not in response to new national childcare subsidies rolled out this month. Hailed as the most significant change to childcare in 40 years, the redesigned subsidy is means-tested and gives the lion's share to those on the lowest incomes. Both parents will now have to be working, volunteering, studying or looking for work to qualify.

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