267. The Australian Government has been implementing the National Quality Framework (NQF) through the Australian Children’s Education and Care Quality Authority (ACECQA), which is a national system for the regulation and quality assessment of early education and care services, applying to most long day care, family day care, preschool and kindergarten, and outside school hours care services.240 268. As of June 2018, assessment of 94% of services showed that 22% were not meeting the National Quality Standards.241 269. In 2018, the Australian Government announced that funding for the NQF would cease.242 270. The Commission is concerned that this will ‘put at risk the unified national commitment to quality in the early childhood education and care system’.243 271. Submissions also raised the issue that access to preschool should extend to three year olds.244 Research suggests that children benefit from access to quality early education in the two years before formal schooling, and that such education has a direct impact on a child’s life, safety and future outcomes.245 Only 15% of three year olds in Australia participate in preprimary education compared with the OECD average of 68.6%. 246 Recommendation 35: Australian Governments commit to the National Quality Framework and support the Australian Children’s Education and Care Quality Authority on an ongoing basis. Recommendation 36: Australian Governments invest in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander specific programs in early childhood education and care. 8.2 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children 272. Educational outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children are poor when compared with their non-Indigenous peers. School attendance, literacy and numeracy targets are not on track to meet the Closing the Gap goals set by the Australian Government for 2018.247 273. Between 2014 and 2017, the overall school attendance rates for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students across Australia did not improve.248 274. In 2017, retention rates for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children were 62.4% compared with 86% for non-Indigenous children.249 46