Education Ministers Meeting

The ACECQA Board is accountable to the Education Ministers. The Board provides advice and reports to the Education Ministers through the Australian Education Senior Officials Committee (AESOC).

In 2020 the Prime Minister announced new architecture for federal relations, including the Education Ministers Meeting, replacing the Council of Australian Governments (COAG).

The Education Ministers Meeting provides a forum for collaboration and decision-making on education across Australia, including early childhood education and care. The Commonwealth, State and Territory government ministers responsible for education attend the meeting and the meeting is chaired by the Commonwealth Minister for Education.

Under the Education and Care Services National Law, the Ministerial Council has the following functions:

to oversee the implementation and administration of the National Quality Framework (NQF)
to promote uniformity in the application and enforcement of the NQF
to review and approve the National Quality Standard and set specific standards for education and care services and classes of education and care services
to review and approve the rating level system to be used in rating education and care services
to review and approve the fee structure under the National Law
to review and approve new learning frameworks for the purposes of the National Law
to monitor the implementation and operation of, and recommend or approve amendments to, the National Law
to monitor the implementation and operation of the national regulations
to review the education and care services to which the National Law applies and recommend, or amend the national regulations to provide for, the inclusion of new classes of education and care services under the National Law
to appoint the members of the Board
to monitor and review the performance of ACECQA
any other functions given to the Ministerial Council by or under the National Law.

More information is available on the Department of Education, Skills and Employment website.