Outrage as means testing for free pre-school mooted

WORKING mums who struggle to provide for their families will be penalised if an entitlement to pre-school education is means tested, a support charity's members have said.

Comments from deputy Education minister Andrew Le Lievre that a right to at least 15 hours a week would inevitably lead to some form of testing sparked outrage from Guernsey Mums, whose members took to Facebook to express concern.

Education minister Robert Sillars responded to the criticism by saying it was the intention of the department's board to make the scheme available to all.

'But what we haven't looked at as a board is how to get the money to pay for that,' he said. 'We wouldn't want means testing in the sense that people understand it.'