CHILDREN will now be admitted to nursery schools if they are three years old by June 30 of the year they are seeking entry.

Education Minister Priya Manickchand, who made the announcement yesterday, said, the policy will become effective from September 2014.
Speaking at a press conference in the Boardroom of the National Centre for Educational Resource Development (NCERD), Kingston, Georgetown, she said, as a result of this change, children would then be three years, three months old upon entering nursery schools in September and three years, six months at that year’s end.
Manickchand explained that the ministry would need time to implement the system and, as such, the period will be used to determine the furniture needs, acquire more books, manipulative toys and resource materials and provide additional teachers.
She said parents, teachers as well as placement officers, nationally, would also have to be prepared for the change.
The minister pointed out that, presently, a child can only get into a public nursery school at the age of three years if that is attained by March 31 of the year it is seeking admission.
She said that criterion has been creating hardship and disadvantages for both parents and children, because, if a child is born on April 1, it has to wait until the following September to be admitted to a school.
Know more
According to her, the readiness of children at an earlier age is demonstrated by they, themselves, who know more and are far greater advanced than their peers of yesteryear.
Manickchand expressed the view that, maybe in another few years, this change, too, will evolve and children would be ready for nursery level education at an even earlier age.
She said that, with it, there will still be a cut off, as there would be children born on July 1 and, while there could be exceptions, they have to make policies for the majority.
The minister noted, however, that they have some professional concerns that a child who is younger than three years, three months may not be ready for the school environment or to receive the kind of instruction that is given at nursery level one.
Children in Guyana, usually, enter the formal education system at nursery stage and 85 percent of the relevant age group is attending, which is the highest percentage in the Commonwealth Caribbean, she observed.