MELBOURNE, July 26 (Xinhua) -- Australia's pre-school enrolment rate is falling behind global benchmarks, a study published on Wednesday has found.
The study, compiled by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), found 70 percent of Australian three-year-olds participated in formal education in 2014 as compared to a 90 percent rate of enrolment in other OECD nations.
The OECD report also established the importance of early childhood education with 15-year-olds who attended more than one year of pre-school performing significantly better academically than those who did not.
Paul Mondo from the Australian Childcare Alliance (ACA) said many families could not afford kindergarten or childcare for three-year-old children.
In Victoria, the government funds pre-school for 12 hours a week for four-year-olds but provide no funding for younger children.
"Australia is one of the lowest countries spending on early childhood development," Mondo told Australian media on Wednesday.
"It fails to recognize the return benefit that investment in early childhood education brings in later years.
"Victoria is striving to be known as the education state but this is one gap that, if we fill, can have an impact quite quickly."
Martin Foley, Victoria's acting minister for families and children, said the state government had committed 160 million U.S. dollars to childhood education reform, making easier access to early childhood and kindergarten services.
