CUTTING government run pre-school facilities is just one part of a series of cuts announced by the Department of Education and Children.

The department announced today (Friday) that its 11 pre-school facilities, which offer free childcare, will be shut by August 31.

It is part of what it calls a "rationalisation of services" and in response to the fiscal challenges the Island is facing.

Currently around half of pre-school children (aged three and four) in the Isle of Man are offered places in the government run facilities for two and a half hours a day.

In the past this situation has been criticised as "inequitable" and the department says that by transferring the provision of pre-school care to the private and voluntary sectors it will broaden availability.

According to the department part of the funding released from doing this will be used to implement a system which will see parents offered a degree of financial support in accessing nursery education for their children.

However the news of the cuts has not gone down with parents and members of the public in the Isle of Man. A group called "Save our pre-schools (Isle of Man)" has been set up on Facebook and an online petition already has 900 signatures.

A Council of Ministers working group has now been set up to "consider as a matter of urgency proposals which would provide a more effective alternative".

The Department of Education and Children also revealed today that the Family Library on Westmoreland Road in Douglas and the Mobile Library service would close this year and that the primary modern language service would be cut.

Bride Infants' School has been earmarked for closure and charges for music services will also be introduced. One of two officers who deliver health education advice to schools will be cut and the Post Graduate Certificate in Education will no longer be run at the Isle of Man College.

Commenting on the announcements Education and Children Minister Peter Karran MHK said: "The department, like all departments of government, is faced with rising wage bills and loan charges, greater take up of free school meals and many other inflationary factors, and has had to make very difficult decisions over spending in the face of the real-terms reduction in its budget in 2012/13.

"In order to protect our statutory provision (primary and secondary education) we have been forced to explore all options over the services we have traditionally been able to deliver as enhancements when the government’s finances were more buoyant.

"No one is under any illusions over the fiscal difficulties the Island faces. Nevertheless it is with great regret that we find ourselves having to make these savings as we appreciate the impact they will have on the community and we know there will be concern over the loss of these services.

"In some areas posts will be lost but we will do all we can to redeploy colleagues in redundant posts with actual redundancies being very much a last resort."

For more on these cuts check back to isleofman.com on Monday.

Also see: National Association of Headteachers "dismayed" at pre-school cuts 
              Government run pre-school facilities to close