Fire hazards? Budget cuts prevented the fire department from inspecting early childhood institutions

Tyrone Reid, Sunday Gleaner Reporter

Hundreds of early childhood institutions across Jamaica did not undergo the required fire and health inspections in the 2009-2010 financial year because of budgetary constraints at the public health and fire departments.

Concern over this state of affairs was noted in the 2009-2010 annual report of the Early Childhood Commission (ECC) sent to Parliament last week.

Sunday Gleaner calculations have revealed that close to 1,700 of the approximately 3,000 early childhood institutions (ECI) operating on the island have not been checked or passed by the fire department.

"The major challenge for the financial year under review was the execution of requisite ECI inspections by the relevant agencies. As a result of budgetary cuts, partner agencies have been unable to execute required inspections," read a section of the annual report.

vital inspections

In an interview with The Sunday Gleaner, Professor Maureen Samms-Vaughan stressed that the fire inspections were vital. "Ensuring that our early childhood institutions are fire-safe is absolutely critical," she emphasised.

Data from the Early Childhood Commission's annual report showed that some 2,863 early childhood institutions are operating in the sector. At the end of the 2008-2009 financial year, only 35 per cent of these facilities had been inspected by the Jamaica Fire Brigade.

The number of institutions checked for the 2009-2010 financial year increased, but "remained low at 41 per cent", which means that only 172 of the remaining 1,861 early childhood institutions were inspected by the fire department", the report said.

In contrast to the fire inspections, more checks were made by the public health department. For the 2009-2010 financial year, 95 per cent of the institutions were checked, according to the report.

Neil Findlay, deputy commissioner in charge of administration at the Jamaica Fire Brigade, said the national fire service remained committed to carrying out its mandate, but that it was "subject to the availability of funds".

Findlay was unable to address how the cash crunch prevented the fire brigade from carrying out the requisitioned inspections of the early childhood facilities because that falls under the remit of the fire-prevention officer, who was out of office on Friday.

Samms-Vaughan pointed out that funds had been identified to finance the much-needed fire inspections. She added that the ECC and the fire brigade had already discussed the inspections, which should be carried out during the current financial year.

"Can you imagine what would happen if we had a child die in a fire?" Samms-Vaughan questioned as she reiterated the importance of the fire inspections.

Some of the institutions already inspected by the brigade need simple solutions like emergency exit signs, while others need fire extinguishers and additional doors.

Under the 2005 Early Childhood Act and regulations, all early childhood institutions operating in Jamaica must be registered with the ECC, which is the regulatory agency for the sector.

According to ECC data, of the 3,000 early-childhood institutions, 2,800 have been identified, and up to December 2010, 2,592 have applied for registration. Early childhood institutions include day-care centres, community-run basic schools, government infant schools and infant departments in primary and all-age schools, and kindergarten departments of privately owned preparatory schools.

The optimistic ECC chairperson admitted that the sector is not where it should be, but is convinced that things will get better. "We are not where we want to be but people are motivated and are working towards the standards,' she said.

Samms-Vaughan believes the data gathered by the inspections will form the catalyst for the change that is needed in the early childhood institutions.

tyrone.reid@gleanerjm.com