MONTEGO BAY, St James – Several basic school operators are worried that they’ll be forced out of business as the Government moves closer to enforcing regulations under the Early Childhood Act.

Under the law enacted in 2005, basic school operators will have to conform to several standards designed to enhance the delivery of early childhood education in order to be certified to operate.

These standards, which are classified under 12 headings will, among other things, require operators to teach their students:

. good manners

. independence, and

. to respond appropriately to students’ expressions of affection, hurt and distress.

The school operators are also required to meet regularly with their students’ parents and guardians and ensure that the schools have clean toilets and face basins that are at a size and height which allow children to use them comfortably.

These bathroom facilities must, under the law, be separate from those used by adults.

“We are not objecting to any of them, we agree that they will make the system better, but everything points back to the finances, can anybody meet this?” asked Claudia Dawson, a teacher at Evans Preparatory and Kindergarten in Montego Bay.

“Of course, many operators are in a position to be certified right now,” replied Portia Downie, one of the three education officers who invited Dawson and others to participate in a workshop entitled ‘Start them right, make them bright’.

The workshop, which was staged at John Joyce Basic School in Catherine Hall, Montego Bay, was one of a series by which the Government, through its Early Childhood Commission, in collaboration with the United Nations-funded Enhancement of Basic Schools project, aims to educate the public about the implications of the Early Childhood Act.

Some of the concerns that the operators voiced during the workshop included the feasibility, financial and otherwise, of:

. creating a space of 20 square feet for each child to play and learn in;

. providing a hot nutritious meal each day; and

. erecting a sturdy fence around the school compound which was in most cases a rented property.

However, Downie and the other two education officers, Eileen Mitchell-Edmondson and Patricia Haughton, were quick to point out that several agencies were waiting on the applications to come in for grants to render the required improvements.

“You will be given time. The thing to do is to start getting your houses in order now,” said Mitchell-Edmondson. “If the inspectors come around and see that you are in the process of complying with the requirements they are not going to shut you down just like that, you will be given time.”

Six agencies have been identified by the ECC as among the host of private sector organisations, foundations and non-governmental organisations that are willing to offer various types of support, pending a formal request.

They are: the Environmental Foundation of Jamaica; the Jamaica Social Investment Fund; the Culture, Health, Arts, Sports and Education (CHASE) Fund; the United Way of Jamaica/CVSS; the Social Development Commission; and the Build Jamaica Foundation.