AN irate mother of one has blasted the private pre-school system for favouring expatriate children over Bermudians.

Speaking to the Mid-Ocean News anonymously, the Bermudian said she had registered her 21-month-old son for three pre-schools including Woodrose, Woodmont and Stepping Stonesjust one month after he was born.

When her baby reached six months of age, she also registered him atPlay with a Purpose. And the mother has since applied for Bloomfieldand Montessoriin an effort to secure him a good space and start to his education.

But her attempts to place her son in pre-school have been in vain.

"I applied to the pre-school (Play with a Purpose) 15 months ago and I am still on the waiting list along with 60 other people. But I know of some parents who registered their child after me and that child has secured a spot," she said, adding that the child is not Bermudian.

"How does the system work and how are you supposed to get your children into school?" she said. "We pay just as much money as expatriates do to educate our children. Yet they tend to get first priority. I knew this kind of thing (favouritism) went on at the junior and high school levels, but it is obviously now happening at the pre-school level. How is that fair?"

The enraged mother acknowledged that most nursery schools do not accept children under the age of three. But there are a handful of schools that accept younger children for those parents who want to send their youngsters to school at two or two-and-a-half.

She said: "I'm a working mother so I would like to be able to send my child to school at the age of two. But those few schools that do accept two year olds are completely full. What makes it worse it that my son does not even have a spot for when he turns three - even though he was registered at such a young age. It seems to me that expats are getting precedence."

As well, she noted that children who already have siblings at the schools are automatically admitted. "And that's fine," she said. "But that means a large expatriate family will have all their kids in the school, which takes up even more Bermudian spots. Again, why should they have preferential treatment?"

While the mother admitted the main problem was a lack of space in the schools, she said the fact that expatriate children often had precedence over Bermudian children was unjust.

"Somthing needs to be done," she said.

Woodmont Nursery School principal Sister Dolores Sullivan refuted the claims that expatriate children are favoured over Bermudian kids.

Woodmont, which currently has a waiting list of about ten children for the two-and-a-half-year-old class and 25 to 30 children for the three-year-old class, accepts children on a first-come, first-served basis, according to Sister Sullivan.

"We only have ten children in each class and we contact the parents if we have room. If we do not have room, we cannot accept them," she said, adding that she looked at the birthdate of each child to ensure they were of the correct age by the start of the school year.

"We take children as they come. It's as simple as that. We do not look at culture or race or anything of that nature. Acceptance is based on the order in which we receive the applications and birthdates."

OWNER and head teacher ofPlay with a Purpose Jenny McLeod concurred. "We do not have a Bermudian or non-Bermudian policy. We don't even ask for (a child's) nationality on the application form. Our admission process is based strictly on the date of application, not on the nationality of the child."

Mrs. McLeod noted that demand was high and Play with a Purpose had an unusually long waiting list. But she was very surprised by the notion that expatriate children were being preferred over Bermudians.

"Our policy is such that if a child has gone through pre-school, we will take their siblings first. Otherwise, our admission policy is based on the date of application."

She added: "This has never been a problem in the past and if we felt it was a problem, we would certainly address it. We do not have a discriminatory policy."

Attempts by the Mid-Ocean News to reach other nursery schools were unsuccessful.