"When I wanted to return to work after having my first son, we looked into a private ECE centre as there were no places for his age group at kindergarten. Once I calculated how much I’d actually be earning after paying the fees and the disadvantages of handing over such a young child, it just didn’t make sense. I ended up delaying my return to work by six months because of the cost of ECE.
"After my second child was born, paying for private ECE became a real financial strain. We desperately looked for alternatives, so we could still afford our mortgage. I spoke to one father who was taking a second job to cover childcare costs. Fortunately, we then found a place at our local kindergarten.
"Having experienced both for-profit ECE and not-for-profit kindergarten, there is no comparison. The private ECE seemed to rely a lot on younger, cheaper, unqualified or in-training teaching staff with massive turnover – no fault of the staff, but the inevitable result when profit is the priority.
"We need to fund public, not-for-profit ECE so we can trust that our children are receiving quality education, teachers are paid fairly, and everybody has access to it."