The Tribune

By RIEL MAJOR

THE Ministry of Education yesterday launched the second phase of its universal pre-school programme with a contract signing for its private pre-school partnership.

Forty-four private pre-schools have been identified for the plan and parents will be able to get vouchers of up to $2,000 per child to enroll in one of the approved institutions.

Education Minister Jeffrey Lloyd said more than 300 pre-schoolers have already been enrolled in the government’s pre-schools and many other public primary schools through construction and expansion of school facilities.

The government and private pre-school providers gathered at the Ministry of Education’s Learning Resources Section yesterday for the contract signing.

The purpose of this educational initiative is to ensure all boys and girls, age three and four, have a good early educational foundation.

According to officials, the programme is not just a Ministry of Education initiative but also an international proposal mandated by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and the Inter-American Education Agenda. The 2010 Bahamas Census revealed that fewer than half of Bahamian students, ages two to three, were enrolled in pre-school. The Ministry of Education aims to increase the number of children enrolled in the pre-primary programme each year.

The Ministry of Education and the Pre-school and Day-Care Centre Council have endorsed this new proposal and parents can also be assured it has met all of the required standards.

Mr Lloyd said: “We have attempted to engage as many that would be able to provide... The 44 of those that meet the standard and when I say standard you’re talking about the infrastructure standard as well as the curriculum. Those were the ones able to get up to speed in time for the start of this particular initiative and who are willing.

“There are a number of those who may have the qualifications by way of the standards, physical and otherwise, or the curriculum but necessarily may not be willing, so we have 44.

“The 300 are in the public sector that is where we were able to expand within our public schools whether it was Uriah McPhee and Stephen Dillet and so on. In this instance we’ve only been able to get 427 (students) we were aiming for 500 or more so we can make up the 1,000 but we were only able to get 427 because again only ‘x’ number was able to qualify of those that came forward. But we will continue and we are happy they are working with us, the private sector, we are very pleased with the quota and the cohort of private schools that are here who are participating they are very capable they have proven track records.”

The minister said this new education initiative will definitely reach its goal quota of 1,000 children enrolled in pre-school by January 2019.

He said: “Mrs Burrows (senior education officer) and Mrs Rhodriquez (senior education officer) are the two persons who are working in our pre-school unit are going throughout the Family Islands. Those who have indicated their interest and who need more time in order to become qualified, talking about the physical features because you know these are babies and you need to have a certain bathroom size, separate bathrooms, sufficient storage space, you know they have to sleep during the daytime, they have to be in an enclosed area so they are separate from the older children if it’s not a stand-alone pre-school.”

He continued: “These are very important they also have to meet certain requirements from a curriculum standpoint so we can make sure that when they are finished the pre-school they can easily transition into grade one and so on. So there is a requirement and we need to make sure that these requirements are met from the beginning, not a promise that ‘okay, Mr Minister of Education, we will get that straight in January.’ No we want to make sure of that in the beginning because what we are saying to those parents is this school is qualified to receive your child and we stand by that and we are only going to stand by that based on evidence that you are in fact qualified.”

The initiative is also being carried out in the Family Islands where most pre-school students have already enrolled in public primary schools.