ECC urges compliance by operators of unregistered early childhood institutions

The Early Childhood Commission (ECC) is urging operators of unregistered early-childhood institutions (ECIs) islandwide to take steps to become fully compliant with the organisation.

Under the Early Childhood Act and Regulations (2005), all ECIs must be registered with the Commission to receive a permit to operate.

ECC Chair, Trisha Williams-Singh, told JIS News that there are currently 92 delinquent ECIs in operation, none of which are government-operated.

An ECI is any place that cares for four or more children under the age of six, for up to six hours daily.

This includes nurseries, centres, or homes which offer day care, basic schools, kindergartens, preschools, and infant schools and departments.

Williams-Singh shared that St Catherine, Clarendon, St James and St Ann all have double-digit numbers of delinquent ECIs, while St. Andrew has one and Kingston has none.

The remaining parishes also have varying numbers of delinquent ECIs.

“In the last couple of months, we've seen pop-ups of unregistered early-childhood institutions just coming on our radar, and our intent, as always, is to have our development officers go out, meet with these proprietors and work with them and encourage them to get their schools registered,” Williams-Singh said, adding that field officers check for delinquent ECIs once per week.

She advised: “The delinquent list will be posted on the Early Childhood Commission's website by March 31, 2024… and the monitoring report with the status of ECIs will be made available by April 1, 2024”.

However, Williams-Singh said this a last resort, noting that ECIs receive a permit to operate once there is no threat to health and safety.

She explained that the first 1,000 days of a child's life are critical, and one way in which children can be provided with a good start is to ensure that all ECIs are efficiently run and provide services that promote the youngsters' development.

She also appealed to persons who are interested in taking care of children, to first visit the ECC head office or any of its resource centres, so that they can be fully briefed on the 12 Standards for the Operation, Management and Administration of Early Childhood Institutions.

The Standards are Staffing; Development and Educational Programmes; Physical Environment; Interactions and Relationships with Children; Indoor and Outdoor Equipment; Health; Nutrition; Safety; Child Rights, Child Protection and Equality; Administration; Finance; and Parent and Stakeholder Participation.

The ECC was established by the Early Childhood Commission Act (2003), in keeping with the strategic goal of the Government of Jamaica to improve the quality of early-childhood care, education and development.

An agency of the Ministry of Education and Youth, the Commission coordinates all activities, development plans and programmes within the early-childhood sector.

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