The Rudd Government today announced details of the National Partnership with all States and Territories on Early Childhood Education.

Queensland will receive $252 million over the next five years to help ensure every Queensland child can access early childhood education in the year before school.

Delivering on our election commitment, the Rudd Government is investing in early childhood education for all Australian children.

Under the Early Childhood Education National Partnership, $955 million will go towards achieving universal access to quality early childhood education in the year before school by 2013.

The Rudd Government has been working in partnership with the Bligh Labor Government to ensure that every Queensland child gets the best start in life.

Research shows that disadvantaged children benefit the most from high quality preschool or kindergarten as it is known in some jurisdictions. Unfortunately at the moment, these are the children most likely to miss out.

Up to 30 per cent of all Australian four year olds do not go to preschool in the year before school, and crucially about half of all Indigenous children miss out.

Through this National Partnership, the Australian and State and Territory Governments have committed that by 2013, every child will have access to 15 hours of affordable, quality early childhood education per week, for 40 weeks a year, in the year before formal schooling, delivered by university-trained early childhood teachers.

These quality early learning programs will be delivered in a range of settings including child care, in order to meet the needs of working families.

As part of this National Partnership, all governments have agreed to a set performance indicators that will be used to assess and report on progress towards achieving the universal access to early childhood education by 2013 goal.

Additional funding of $15 million over the five years is being provided to support the necessary data development and evaluation.