Thank you, Mr. Cullen.

What a pile of self serving drivel.

No wonder Mr Cullen is the ex director of primary education.

http://www-rcf.usc.edu/~gpainter/Season%20of%20Birth%2009_04.pdf

While it is clear that a year of pre school has little effect on most children, but has a marked effect on those with learning difficulties and from a disadvantaged background.

As per the link, the most recent test results show an advantage in starting children earlier (5yrs) in Kindy.

Given the consequences of children finishing school, Uni, and other education a year later, and the cost of an additional year of pre school / mother staying at home, the economy, the children and the parents are better served with the starting age at 5.

Shadow Minister,
Just because you don't appear to grasp the concept of efficiency & realty does not justify to accuse someone who does of writing drivel.
The most important years in a human's live are the years a human being is alive. However, there have been people who appear to have more influence over society after they died. Why ? Because in general humans are guided by what is being presented to them from people before them. You get intelligent people who convey intelligence & stupid people who convey stupidity. Now, at age 5 a human being is learning how to interact & think for itself. This particular phase can best be aided by letting it be itself whilst learning. To drag it into a room filled with others & have a compliant of a particular system force feeding the 5 year old is not developing its individuality, it's brainwashing !
The # 1 problem why so many baby boomers have become useless adults is because we
had morons force teaching us a lot of crap & because that's all we know we're now doing the same to our young. I have known many intelligent kids who were ruined by the education system.
The magnificent advances of the past are due to a handful of people who did not get brainwashed. Just look at early composers & philosophers etc. They still have more sensible influence now than so many of today's "experts"

Individual,

From your incoherent and rambling posts it is clear that you think that attending school is a punishment.

Most children enjoy kindie and pre school and socially benefit tremendously from the experience, and judging from your previous posts, spelling, scentence structure and grammar, a few extra years of schooling would have done you the world of good.

Unlike yourself I prefer to rely on recognised studies than personnal prejudices. Perhaps you would like to cite a study that shows children do better without the social interaction of school?

As for your drivel on dead composers, do you have a point?

Shadow Minister,

Are you suggesting that the social interaction provided by being schooled is natural and that we should endeavour to shut little children away from the broader community at ever younger ages for their social and emotional benefit?
Please explain how being placed together in an institution for 30-odd hours a week for 30-odd weeks a year, away from interactions with the general community, with peer-aged children who live within your postcode area is designed to provide good all-round socialization skills?
School has many agendas, some overt and some covert, however socialization is the one that is always thrown up as a defence of the system.
Our system of schooling, left over from the early days of industrialization, is more likely to warp a child's natural ability to interact successfully with members of society of all ages than to enhance it.
For some strange reason, we seem to believe that the earlier we rip children away from the greater community and place them in institutions for their "social benefit", we are doing them a favour.
We are, in fact, doing them a disservice.
Why, for instance, did our Federal Government recently find it necessary to implement "Depression Prevention" programs for infants and young children?
Something is wrong in paradise - it should give people food for thought.

Shadow Minister why haven't you changed your title yet ? judging by your comments you are actually Minister. I find it hard to believe a real 2010 Shadow minister would carry on like this unless of course there's an election won by the conservatives.
What you describe as incoherent rambling is more aptly described as the critic being incoherent to common sense i.e. observations & experiences gained in everyday life rather than having mere theories drummed into the mind. Those who believe that Kindergarten is enjoyed by the kids need to go to Kindy themselves. As for the drivel on dead composers I won't even explain as it obviously would be totally lost on you. As for other long gone individuals sit back & think (if you can) on the countless commodities we are enjoying & find so useful in our daily life. No doubt sooner or later another bright individual will make a useful i.e. practical discovery or invention through his/her own initiative & trials rather than just copying some academic theory which after all, is only a theory.