Free pre-school trial will carry on for another year
A FREE pre-school scheme trial will be extended for another academic year from September.
Education, Sport & Culture has said that would allow more time to gather data and evidence to determine the overall impact of the entitlement.
Parents and carers of all three- and four-year-olds are currently entitled to 15 hours a week of free pre-school education, term-time only, for the year before they start school.
The majority of private pre-school providers signed up to be part of the initial trial of the scheme, which started in January, and they are paid £5.90 per hour by the States for each child.
Education president Paul Le Pelley said his committee had been considering whether to make any changes to the scheme at the end of the current trial.
'We have made no secret of the fact that we were considering the introduction of a top-up scheme allowing providers to charge parents fees on top of any funding provided by the States.
'However, we feel that we must allow the current scheme sufficient time to run to allow us to gather data and evidence of the impact of the entitlement on children, their parents and the providers who have signed up to be part of the scheme.'
