Parents
Preschools Schooling is offered to children between the ages of 3 and 5 in a group setting such as a child care centre, preschool, child development centre, nursery school, before/after-school programmes, or early learning centre, by whatever name known, under private nonprofit, proprietary, public and religious auspices.
Visit Early Childhood and Preschool Section Registration
Registration
When registering a child to enter school for the first time, parents are required to provide the following:
- A Birth Certificate or affidavit verifying the child's birth.
- Immunization Car.
- Correct current address which could be verified by a BEC, BTC or Water & Sewage bill.
- All Primary School students must be 5 years old by September 30th of the year the child enters school.
- The child is to be registered at a school within the zone where the child resides.
- If a school within the child's zone is full and has no available space, initially, the child's name should be forwarded by the school to another school in the catchments area, and if remains unresolved, referred to the District Superintendent for placement into a school where space is available.
School Busing
The Minister of Education, Science & Technology, Youth, Sports & Culture is obliged under Section 35 of the Education Act to ensure that suitable arrangements are instituted for the transport of students registered where such schools are not within walking distance of the students' homes. In this regard, current policy limits the walking distance as two (2) and three (3) miles respectively for primary and secondary students. Consequently, a system of bussing such students to and from school has been in operation for some time.
The current rates are as follows:
- $1.25 per student per day for New Providence and Freeport routes; and
- $1.50 per student for Family Island routes.
An additional fee of $2 or $4 per mile is paid depending upon the road conditions for Family Island routes.
Parental Responsibilities
- It is the primary responsibilities of parents to personally raise their children; however if there is a problem the State provides assistance where necessary.
- In the Bahamas, parents, whether married or not, are considered by Statue Law as well as society as being primarily responsible for childcare.
- According to Statue Law, both parents are expected to share responsibility for the child and are thus responsible for his/her upbringing and nurturing.
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