Ministry appeals to parents to start nursery registration

Mar 06, 2014 News

— reminds that placement may be conditional

If a child was born on or before June 30, 2011, that child can and should be prepared to attend school when the new school term begins September. Moreover, the Ministry of Education is appealing to parents to register their children from now so that the necessary arrangements can be made to have them accommodated at schools across the country.

Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand

The Ministry of Education last year announced that it was poised to change the age at which a child may be enrolled in nursery school. And according to a statement issued by the Ministry yesterday, significant strides have been made towards making the necessary enhancements that will allow for parents to give their children an earlier start to a sound education.
Children born on or before June 30 are now eligible for placement at a nursery school in the year they would have turned three years- old.
“Registration for the new school term in September has commenced and we are encouraging parents and guardians to get their children placed at a school closest to their home,” detailed the Ministry in its statement yesterday. Parents can also opt to use an online registration form, at www.education.gov.gy, which could ensure that the process is faster.
As is the norm, parents or guardians are asked to provide the child’s birth certificate and clinic card at the time of registration. Those charged with registering the children are also asked to bring along their National Identification Cards as well as proof of address.
Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand, had informed the media that the move to revise the nursery entry age of children is likely to see close to 3,000 more children being able to enter the school system this year. Previously a child had to be three years old by March 31 in order to enter nursery school in September of the same year.
Although attending nursery school is not compulsory, Manickchand said that there is already a high percentage of “our nursery age cohorts in nursery school…That is more than 85 per cent of our children, who can attend nursery, are in nursery (school), and we expect that will rise a little.”
In fact, Minister Manickchand speculated that “we probably have the highest percentage in the Commonwealth Caribbean regarding the number of children we have enrolled in schools and we are envied throughout the Region for our early childhood education.”
And, the Education Ministry is also currently directing careful consideration to the placement of children. In fact, the Ministry has noted that while each child is entitled to a place in a nursery and primary School, the associated Education policy outlines that a child is also entitled to be placed at the school closest to his or her home.
But in the event that there is no one to care for a child at home after school dismisses, the Ministry, according to the statement, is prepared to grant permission for a child to be placed at a school close to a parent’s place of work. This placement, however, is conditional since such an undertaking would be dependent on the space available at the school in question. In such cases, parents are asked to supply a job letter from their place of work.
Of note too is the fact that a parent who is employed or works at a school, such as a teacher, cleaner, gardener, handyman or even a vendor, will be given priority, amongst the parents who appeal for a placement of his/her child/children at that school. The process in this regard the Ministry has noted will be treated as though the child/children live closest to the said school at which the parent is employed.