The Department of Education, Innovation and Gender Relations, through its Early Childhood Services Unit (ECSU), has been working collaboratively with local health authorities to ensure the safe re-opening of the Early Childhood Sector on the island.
Officers from the Department of Environmental Health have been conducting island-wide inspections of the various Early Childhood Centers to ensure compliance to guidelines provided in collaboration with the Saint Lucia Bureau of Standards.
As such, the early childhood sector will reopen on a phased basis, with all approved private centers resuming operations on Tuesday 6th April, 2021. Government operated centers will reopen their doors on Monday 19th April, 2021.
Only centers which have met the approved guidelines and demonstrate a sense of readiness to receive children, in a safe and conducive environment, have been granted approval to reopen.
The Early Childhood Services Unit commends the administrators and staff of the various early childhood centers for their patience and efforts in ensuring that all the stipulated protocols are in place at their centers, to ensure the safety and wellbeing of the children in their care, as well as staff and parents.
The Unit welcomes the reopening of the sector and urges all early childhood practitioners to remain alert and vigilant and ensure total adherence to and maintenance of all of the COVID-19 guidelines which govern the operations of the centers.