EARLY Childhood Commission (ECC) is cautioning parents and guardians to ensure the schools they choose to send their children to are registered to operate in Jamaica, after allegations that the principal of a delinquent early childhood institution in St Catherine collected hundreds of thousands of dollars intended for the school and is now nowhere to be found.

Parents and administrators are now scrambling to keep the doors of the school open after the ECC warned of its possible closure.

One parent, who wished to remain anonymous, said she has removed her child from the school.

According to the parent, when she enrolled her child at the institution she was added to a WhatsApp group that, she was informed, included the school secretary and other parents. She said that the school had a special needs department. On one occasion she said she messaged the secretary to seek further information. The secretary responded by telling her to contact the principal.

However, she said alarm bells went off when she actually met the secretary in person but the secretary had no recollection of their WhatsApp conversation.

“I came to later find out that the principal was impersonating the secretary, and the secretary did not know until I raised the alarm in October [this year]. We found out that he was also talking to other parents from the school, pretending to be her,” said the parent.

She said another red flag was when she was instructed to send tuition payments to the principal’s personal bank account because the school did not have an account.

“I remember from 2023 I asked why is the payment being made to his account. He said there was an issue, and they were trying to get the school account up and running, but they haven’t as yet. I was a little sceptical but I said, ‘Okay, they have been operating for a year [so] it can’t be that it is a scam,’ and I think that is why I paid,” she told the Jamaica Observer.

“There were times when what would happen is, whenever I make a payment I would message that number and send them a breakdown of the payment. Whether it’s for lunch, potty training, or extra-curricular activities, I would send all of that to the secretary. But what happened is, my husband would go there and say something to her and she would be clueless about what we had spoken about before,” she said.

The parent said that after investigating and speaking with teachers at the school, she discovered that the principal was collecting fees for programmes that did not exist, and had not been to the institution in weeks. She said she also found out that the teachers were not being paid and were unsuccessful in their attempts to contact the principal.

“They were like, ‘Listen, we were only hanging on until Christmas because we are here for the children. After Christmas, we are not planning to come back.’ They were telling me they were just trying to hope that the parents would find out what is happening with the school and take their children from the school,” the mother shared.

She said she immediately began to contact other parents and urged them to remove their children from the school.

Additionally, she tried to contact the principal. After numerous attempts she said she got him on the phone and he agreed to refund her, but disappeared after their conversation ended.

“I was upset because I went all out, got the uniforms made — and [the principal] sent out a list of things, and I got all of them. I was just saying, ‘I want the best for my child.’ I know it’s a small school, and they just started up… but I said that I am investing in this school because I believed what he was saying. The principal told us a bag of lies, saying that they had a play therapist and that it’s important to teach children how to play. He was good at putting words together and convincing us,” she told the Sunday Observer.

She said that she sent more than $100,000 to his account for her child and feels sad for other parents who cannot remove their children from the school because they have limited options for special needs schools in St Catherine.

When informed about the incidents at the school, chair of ECC Trisha Williams Singh said the school has not applied to the ECC and does not have a permit to operate in Jamaica. “The fact that they have not applied to the Early Childhood Commission, this is what we call a delinquent early childhood institution operating in Jamaica. It pops up, it starts operations, but it does not have a registration from the Early Childhood Commission,” said Williams Singh.

“We, in fact, have visited this school in about August or September of this year. The Early Childhood Commission inspector met with this principal and informed them about applying for registration with the Early Childhood Commission — because when you pop up, once we hear about you, we are going to visit with you to ensure that you comply with the law. To date, we have not received any application from this institution,” she told the Sunday Observer.

When informed about the activities taking place at the institution, Williams Singh said the commission would go back to the school to request a report and conduct an investigation. The findings of the report will be sent to the Ministry of Education to determine whether the institution should be closed.

She also shared that five delinquent institutions have so far been closed by the ministry.

Williams Singh further urged parents to be cautious when enrolling their children in early childhood institutions.

“Before you send your child to any early childhood institution you should ask and you should look for that certificate that we place that gives them that permit to operate. You, too, have an obligation to the safety and well-being of your child, so does the State,” she said.

“The State plays its part by having, for example, an Early Childhood Commission. Likewise, as a parent, before you place your child there you should ask, ‘Do you have a permit to operate?’ and if that institution does not have a permit to operate then that should be a red flag to you as a parent,” she said.

A source with knowledge of the developments confirmed that ECC did visit the school and had informed them that there were outstanding requirements to be met in order to complete the registration.

“The ECC did indicate that the registration was not done properly and so the application had to be done over. The ECC also requested and has been requesting some pertinent information from [the principal]; However, that information is still not forthcoming,” the source told the Sunday Observer.

The source also confirmed that there is no school account, and parents were instructed to send payments to the principal’s account. The source added that the principal had informed them that he would open a school account but failed to do so several times.

According to the source, parents were instructed to stop sending money to the principal’s account and attempts were made to create an account for the school, but the signature of the principal was required because he owned the institution.

A representative from the school, who requested anonymity, said with the principal nowhere to be found, school administrators are now scrambling to see how best they can rectify the problem. They said they were not aware that the school was not registered and are now trying to complete the process.

“What is happening now is, we want to detach from [the principal]. There is someone who is trying to get a name change, and that person also has been in contact with ECC so that that can be done,” said the representative.

“Everything is still kind of raw. We are still trying to find our footing. The school right now has no money; what we have been collecting is just lunch money. And then the students have been sick, so it’s not much coming in. We don’t have anything. Whatever was given was all done in the principal’s account. Nobody else has access to his account or knows if there is anything left in his account,” added the source who revealed that there is no information that the matter has been reported to the police.

The representative said that the school is also in the process of restructuring its administrative team, seeing how best they can refund parents and, if possible, save the school from being shut down.

“We are honestly just trying to move things forward for the parents and the students,” the source said.

The Sunday Observer was provided with contacts for the principal and tried to get his comments. However, the newspaper’s attempts were futile.