KINGSTON, Jamaica (JIS) – The Early Childhood Commission (ECC) is well underway with work to certify 300 additional basic schools meeting its 12 qualifying Standards, over the Board’s three-year tenure.

This exercise, when completed in 2019, will bring the number to 317, following last year’s certification of the first 17 of the approximately 2,700 early childhood institutions in operation. 

The ECC’s Acting Executive Director, Karlene Degrasse-Deslandes, said that 100 institutions, with an enrolment of approximately 10,000 children, are being targeted under the initial phase of the current certification exercise, which commenced last September and is scheduled for completion in August this year.

She added that the agency is in the process of completing the certification of 22 of the 100 institutions shortlisted from 183 identified islandwide.

The 22 are located in Kingston and St Andrew, St Catherine, Clarendon, Westmoreland, Hanover, St James, Trelawny and Portland.

Degrasse-Deslandes noted that these schools have attained between 90 and 99 per cent of the certification standard requirements, adding that the remaining 73 institutions’ state of compliance ranges between 70 and 99 per cent.

The factors and considerations influencing selection of the 100 institutions, she said, included, inter alia, the outcome of inspections detailing schools’ operations; and operators’/practitioners’ willingness to work with the ECC in implementing the Standards.