Education: 21 children not accessing free pre-school
A TOTAL of 21 children are not accessing pre-school, despite 15 hours per week being offered for free, Education believes.
Universal free entitlement, funded by the States, started in January this year and so far 565 children have accessed it.
But Education, Sport & Culture said using figures from the Greffe of the number of three- to four-year-olds who are due to start school in September, it believed 3.6% were not taking up the offer.
However, a small number of those would be taking up the entitlement for the summer term, it said.
The cost for the spring term of the funded places was £592,827 – a cost of £1,049.25 per child, per term.
'Based on figures from the Greffe of the number of pre-school aged children of the correct age, we believe there are currently 21 children (3.6%) in the Bailiwick not accessing pre-school,' said an Education spokesman.
'The States Early Years Team (SEYT) is currently processing payments to providers for the summer term and is aware of a small number of additional children who will be taking up the entitlement after the Easter break.'
The current pre-school entitlement of 15 hours a week of free pre-school education is for 38 weeks a year (term-time) for all three- to four-year-olds in the year before they start school started in January 2017.
The current scheme, which has been referred to as a trial, has been extended for another academic year from September. This is in order to gain further evidence and information over its overall impact.
