Preschool education spending ‘lowest in OECD

The organisation representing the world’s richest nations says Australia spends less on preschool education than the rest of the industrialised world.
In a report to be released tomorrow, the OECD study shows Australia spends only 0.1 per cent of its gross domestic product on formal preschool education.
The report, previewed in The Australian newspaper, shows Australia is behind South Korea and Mexico in spending, and well behind many European countries when it comes to the number of children attending preschool.
In Italy and France, 100 per cent of three-year-olds are in preschool, compared to 20 per cent of Australian children of the same age.
The federal president of the Australian Education Union, Pat Byrne, says the figures are not surprising.
“This simply confirms here what we’ve known for a very long time – there has been a continuing unwillingness to invest in any significant way in preschool education,” she said.