94% of eligible children availing of free pre-school year

ABOUT 94 per cent of children eligible for the free pre-school year have taken it up, the Minister for Children said yesterday.

Minister of State Barry Andrews said 63,000 children availed of the free pre-school year scheme in September.

A further 4 per cent of pre-school children have joined other State schemes including the Early Start programme for children with special needs and Traveller pre-schools.

The Early Childhood Care and Education scheme began in January and included 38 weeks of pre-schooling for three hours a day, five days a week.

To qualify this year, children must have been between three years and three months and four years and six months on September 1st. The estimated cost of the scheme was €170 million annually.

It replaced the early childhood supplement of €1,100 a year for pre-schoolers, which was scrapped in the budget of April 2009 and cost €480 million a year. About 53,000 children took part in the scheme when it began in January and 3,800 playschools and Montessori schools signed up to provide the service.

The numbers of children participating increased by 10,000 this September and service providers also increased to 4,200.

Some 30,000 staff are employed in the playschools and Montessori schools providing the services, some of which also incorporate day-care facilities.

Speaking yesterday, Mr Andrews said the Opposition had claimed the free pre-school year would never be delivered. But it had and it was the first time in the history of the State that all children would arrive in primary school having had access to a pre-school early education.

By international standards, it was unparalleled to have such strong participation in the first year of operation, the Minister said. "That this valuable investment has been made against a backdrop of falling public expenditure illustrates the Government's continuing commitment to children," he said.

The pre-school year offered a unique and invaluable opportunity to shape children's social and educational development, he said.