For four-year-old Angie Marie Gomes, the dream of going to preschool will remain just that because of a Government policy that requires her father to have his work permit renewed before he can put her name down for a place.

"I want to educate my daughter but with this how can I do it?" asked her father Ranjit Gomes, a Bangladeshi who has worked as a chef on the Island for more than nine years now.

"I'm not angry, I am just feeling bad that I cannot give that to her."

The news comes as the Education Ministry admitted to a severe shortage of places for children whose parents wish to send them to Government-run kindergartens, especially for those who wish to find a place in the Island's central parishes.

Mr. Gomes, 39, said he put his daughter's name down for a place at St. John's Preschool in Pembroke, which is near his Serpentine Road home, last January.

In March, he received a letter telling him that the application had been successful.

However, a few weeks later, the Preschool telephoned and told him that his daughter could not be guaranteed a place after all, since his work permit, which gets renewed every June, had not come through yet.

Government policy says guest workers must have proof of permission to reside in Bermuda effective for the first day of the preschool term, which falls in September.

Although Mr. Gomes will likely have a new work permit issued within the next few days, it is already too late for him to find a place at St. John's Preschool because all of the spaces there have been taken up. This is despite the fact that Mr. Gomes applied for his daughter's space months ago.

He said, in a recent conversation he had with the Education Ministry, that he was offered the chance to send his daughter to a school in one of Bermuda's western parishes.

"But it's too far away for me and it's too difficult to do. I just cannot send her at all if I have to send her to one of those preschools. I cannot afford to put my daughter in an expensive school either. My daughter always says she would like to go to school and she cries. She asks why she can't go."

According to acting Education Permanent Secretary Dr. Joseph Christopher, anyone applying to preschool has to show that they have residence effective on the opening day of school "because that is what they apply for".

But Mr. Gomes said: "I've been here for nine years and the company that I work for always applies for a work permit for me, which I get every year," Mr. Gomes said. "That should be enough to let them know that I'll be a resident."

However, Mr. Christopher asked: "But is there any guarantee that he would get that work permit?"

He added: "There is no guarantee of a place at a preschool. In fact, there is currently an issue with Bermudians finding places in preschools, especially in the central parishes."

Asked to elaborate on the severity of the shortage, he said: "I don't have the exact figures."