The Tribune

By DENISE MAYCOCK

Tribune Freeport Reporter

dmaycock@tribunemedia.net

THE second phase of the Ministry of Education’s universal pre-school initiative was launched on Friday in Grand Bahama where it was announced more than a dozen private pre-schools have entered into a partnership with the government for enrollment of preschoolers through a voucher system.

This follows a similar announcement in New Providence.

Some 13 pre-schools in the private education sector were invited to the contract presentation and official signing ceremony for their participation in the Private Preschool Partnership (PPP) programme.

Permanent Secretary Lorraine Armbrister was in attendance and signed on behalf of Minister of Education Jeffrey Lloyd, who was unable to attend due to other commitments.

She said that Grand Bahama, Andros, and Abaco would participate in PPP with the distribution of vouchers to preschoolers immediately.

The Ministry of Education will visit and conduct monitoring and assessment in other Family Islands to also execute agreements for the PPP arrangement with other private pre-schools.

Ms Armbrister noted that the ministry is seeking to enroll an additional 1,000 preschoolers in the Bahamas every year. However, she said the public education system is unable to accommodate them all, and so the government has embarked on a preschool expansion project that is estimated to cost some $1.3 million for 2018-2019 school year.

The ministry will be enrolling some 500 students in the private sector through a voucher system covering up to $2,000 per child, which includes the cost of tuition and learning materials for children in approved private pre-schools.

Ms Armbrister noted that early childhood education is crucial.

“The most important developmental stage of a child is the first few years of life which means that by age three and even earlier children can benefit from pre-primary education,” she explained.

She said the investment in early education is expected to yield high returns both economically and socially as pre-primary education provides the opportunity for the young child to develop skills and competencies necessary to become a successful student and productive citizen.

The Bahamas is a signatory to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and the Inter-American Education Agenda, which seeks to ensure that all boys and girls have access to quality early education development and care and pre-primary education by 2030.

“For these reasons, the Ministry of Education is implementing universal pre-primary education as one of the key initiatives maintained by the Prime Minister’s Delivery Unit,” said Ms Armbrister.