SECTION II: EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION
Early Childhood education development is a pivotal pillar in the educational policies and programmes of the Government of St. Vincent and the Grenadines. The government continues to invest tremendous financial resources to support private and public early childhood institutions to improve the overall quality and access to early years’ education.
Currently, there are one hundred and eight (108) early childhood centres in operation in St. Vincent and the Grenadines of which fifteen (15) are government owned and operated institutions. During the period under review 11 privately owned centres closed due to declining enrolment at their institutions. For the academic year 2023-2024, the government is on schedule to open three new early childhood centres, one in Sandy Bay on the windward side of the island and two in North Leeward in Chateaubelair and Fitz Hughes respectively. This is in keeping with the thrust of the government to ensure that all preschool children access quality early childhood education at minimal or no cost to parents.
The overall enrolment for the 2021/22 Academic year stood at two thousand seven hundred and seventy-three (2773), which was a decrease of three hundred and sixty-nine (369) from the previous three thousand one hundred and forty-two (3142) in 2020-2021. The enrolment in the private institutions decreased from two thousand seven hundred and thirty-six (2736) to two thousand three hundred and thirty-seven (2337), a decrease of 14.47%. At this time, the public institutions enrolment moved from four hundred and six (406) to four hundred and thirty-six (436), an increase of 7.39% (30 students).
This section of the digest provides important data on the Early Childhood Sector for the academic year 2021-2022 on enrolment, staffing and their level of training.