THE GOVERNMENT has extended the deadline for parents to sign their children up for a year of free pre-schooling amid complaints from childcare operators of a slow uptake for the flagship scheme.
Minister of State for Children Barry Andrews said yesterday he would give parents an extra week to sign up for the early childhood care and education scheme and would treat late applications flexibly.
He also rejected criticism from childcare operators, who have accused the Government of dropping the ball by failing to properly advertise the scheme, which formally starts operating on Monday.
“We don’t feel it is necessary for national advertising as we wrote to every parent with a child in the relevant age group in July,” Mr Andrews said. “City and council childcare committees have also been holding information nights on the scheme.”
He described the scheme as “revolutionary”.
Under the scheme, all children aged between three years and three months and four years and six months on September 1st each year are eligible for a year of pre-schooling paid for by the State.
The scheme replaces the early childhood supplement which was scrapped in the budget in April last year. It will cost the State €170 million to operate every year.
The deadline for applications to enrol for the first six-month term was January 13th, but Mr Andrews said yesterday he would extend this until January 20th due to the weather. He said he would also treat all late applications flexibly.
Several childcare operators have warned the Government that many parents did not know about the scheme and some were confused about how it operated.
“The Government allocated €170 million for the scheme but did not allocate any money to market it,” said Robert Buckley, director of Cocoon childcare, which has 15 childcare centres nationwide.
He warned that the Government’s failure to advertise the scheme properly could lead to only 25,000 out of 60,000 eligible children taking part in the first term.
Teresa Heaney, director of the Children’s Nurseries Association, said the association had asked the Government to undertake a nationwide advertising campaign.
“Because of the recession, a lot of children who would normally attend pre-school are not attending this year, so their parents may not know about the scheme,” she said.
“Every week that these children aren’t in pre-school is a lost week for them,” she added.
Mr Andrews said it would not be clear until later this month how many parents had signed their children up for the scheme. However he said he would be disappointed if it did not attract at least 50,000 children.
He said offering free pre-schooling to all children was a “historic landmark” in Ireland and teachers would begin noticing the positive effect on pupils when they entered the school system.
He said the Government had spent €51,707 on sending 70,000 letters to parents in July. His department had been trying to reduce marketing costs due to the recession, however he had been involved directly in a lot of media work such as interviews about the new scheme.