Gov't facing legal challenge over alleged failure to provide adequate early childhood spaces

An Opposition lawmaker is preparing to take the Government to court to get a declaration on whether it has breached Section 13(k) of the Charter of Fundamental Rights.

The particular provision declares it a right of every child, "who is a citizen of Jamaica, to publicly funded tuition in a public educational institution at the pre-primary and primary levels".

In his State of the Nation presentation in the Upper House on Friday, Senator Damion Crawford said he has engaged legal counsel to seek a declaration from the court that the Government through its failure to construct sufficient pre-primary institutions across the 14 parishes of the country abrogates, abridges and infringes the guaranteed constitutional rights set out in the constitution.

“We want for the courts to tell us if it is constitutional, based on section 13(K), that a child with a right to a government institution is not being robbed of that right if the government at the early stage of zero to three has six per cent spaces and at the second stage of three to six has 15 per cent of the space,” he contended.

According to Crawford, of the 2,676 early childhood institutions that apply for registration it is reported that only 408 or 15.2 per cent are identified as public institutions fully funded by the Government.

“How could 15 per cent satisfy that right?” he questioned.

- Edmond Campbell

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