More than 100 Canberra providers sign-on for free three-year-old preschool

The ACT government has announced that 130 providers had signed on to the rollout, which will provide three-year-olds with up to 300 hours of free preschool next year, or roughly one day per week.

The territory government has already allocated $50 million over the next four years to the measure. The change promises to save families an average of $1329 per child.

Minister for Education and Youth Affairs Yvette Berry said that she looked forward "to working with each of the services who are partnering with the ACT government to rollout this significant reform".

"We know that investing in early education provides life-long benefits for our children and sets them up for success," she said.

"I can't wait to see three-year-olds across Canberra making the most of their preschool experience in 2024."

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More than 5000 children across Canberra will be eligible for one day of free preschool under the new measure, with the government aiming to eventually increase this allowance to 15 hours per week.

Ms Berry has previously said that workforce issues in the ACT are preventing the territory from expanding universal early childhood education.

"We'd all love to increase early childhood education across the board, particularly free universal access for preschool age students and three- and four-year-olds," she said in June.

"We have a workforce crisis at the moment, which is why we're investing in the workforce to ensure they are qualified in the sector to be able to provide the preschool education and also the physical, actual, capability of services to be able to provide free and universal access to early childhood education.