The Early Childhood Commission is making significant strides in its quest to ensure that all early childhood institutions are registered with all government-operated institutions now filed to be registered.

According to David Salmon, chairman of the Regulation and Monitoring Committee at the Early Childhood Commission (ECC), this is a historic moment in Jamaica’s history.

“This is historic because, by law all early childhood institutions, according to the Early Childhood Act section three are supposed to be registered to the ECC,” Salmon told Our Today.

But, this has not been the reality.

He further explained that the commission has been having issues with institutions failing to register, but steady progress is being made.

“We are moving towards ensuring that minimal standards are maintained. It is extremely crucial that all of the early childhood institutions in Jamaica are registered,” said Salmon.

According to ECC data, last year February there were 140 early childhood institutions that were not registered, including 20 government-operated institutions.

Since then, that number decreased to 57 in June of 2022 with three government-operated institutions in the mix.

Now, all government-operated institutions have applied for registration but 54 privately owned institutions remain unregistered.

Salmon expressed that it is the desire of the ECC to have all ECIs registered.

“Going forward we are working with the early childhood institutions that are now delinquent and we’ll be working over the next few months to ensure that they become registered so we can achieve the milestone of having zero delinquency.”

The ECC is an agency under the Ministry of Education and established by the Early Childhood Commission Act (2003).

The Commission is geared towards improving the quality of early childhood care, education and development in Jamaica.