In his State-of-the-nation address in February, President Danny Faure stated that as from April this year, all parents whose children are cared for by registered child minding or day care services will receive a financial assistance of R750 for childcare services and that include kids who are attending nursery schools.
To discuss the government financial help for childcare services, the Ministry of Education and Human Resource Development (MEHRD), along with the Institute of Early Childhood Development (IECD) and the Agency for Social Protection (ASP) held a joint conference on Monday afternoon at the IECD headquarters, Le Chantier Mall.
It was attended by the chief executive of IECD, Shirley Choppy, the chief executive of ASP, Marcus Simeon, and Selby Dora, consultant and regulator of day care services from MEHRD.
The aim of the press conference was to share information on the way forward in the implementation of the government financial scheme for childcare services, as well as explain the new application procedures for financial help.
“Standards have been put in place to make sure that kids are getting the necessary tools to prepare them for their next step which is pre-school,” said Mrs Choppy.
She added that this decision is in line with the 2033 vision as well as the strategic development policy which falls in line with the policies for health, education and child development that states that every child gets the same opportunity.
The financial service will be available for all children attending day care or being cared for by a registered child minder.
Mrs Choppy stated that as of 2020, 1323 kids are registered in 28 day care centres and 670 kids are registered at 80 child minding facilities.
In total, over 2000 kids will benefit from the service this year and it has a budget of R20 million plus that will be funded by the government.
The assistance will work in a way that the R750 will be paid to the facility where the child is being cared for and the parents will pay the difference, for instance if the bill is R850 per month the parent will pay the difference which falls at R100.
“In our consultations that we have made, we have seen that there are many kids who attend private nursery schools and during this month we will be meeting with these institutions to discuss the steps we need to take in order for them, parents and kids to receive this service,” added Mrs Choppy.
To receive the financial assistance parents will have to pick a form at their day care or child minding facility where they will fill out the important details.
The assistance will be available only to Seychellois children and will be given as from April this year.
Christophe Zialor – Nation.sc
