97% of children in pre-school places

Education Minister, Caitríona Ruane, has underlined her commitment to accommodating the surge in demand for pre-school education in the coming year.

Speaking to the Assembly, the Minister said: “I welcome the fact that more and more parents are recognising the benefits that high quality pre-school education can deliver for their children.  This has, however, resulted in a shortage of places in certain areas for the 2010/11 year.

“I am very conscious of the concern this has caused parents and families and I wish to assure them that I have taken decisive action to resolve the situation as quickly as possible.  This brings to 22,559 the number of funded pre-school places available, made up of 14,202 places in the statutory sector and sufficient funding for 8,357 places in the voluntary/private sector.  

“I originally set an allocation of funding of almost £11 million to the Education and Library Boards to secure pre-school places in the private/voluntary sector. In the 2009/10 school year, I made provision within the budget to meet increased demand for places. In order to maintain this increased level of provision for the 2010/11 school year, an additional £300,000 of funding was made available to the Education and Library Boards in this year’s budget. This is over and above the funding for the Statutory Nursery Sector which receives around £40 million, bringing the total amount of funding in pre-school to over £50 million.

“The additional funding of £1.3 million that I announced last week will meet the shortage of around 1,200 places from primarily within the voluntary and private sectors.  These sectors can deal with temporary fluctuations in pupil numbers and have the flexibility to be able to provide the additional places within a short timescale.  Currently, 63% of children are in the statutory sector and 37% in the private/voluntary sector.”

The Minister added: “Prior to the introduction of the Pre-School Education Programme in 1997, only 45% of children received a funded pre-school education place in statutory nurseries and reception classes, by 2009/10, 97% of 3-4year olds were allocated a pre-school place.  This demonstrates the excellent work which is ongoing in the education sector.

“The pre-school year is an extremely important year for children.  Thanks to these measures, a greater proportion of parents than ever will secure pre-school education provision for their children.”

Notes to editors:

1. Education and Library Boards were originally set a budget of almost £11 million to secure pre-school places in the private and voluntary sectors. This includes an additional £300,000 in the 2009/10 school year. The new funding of £1.3 million is over and above this original allocation.
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