Educators urged to stimulate quality early childhood education

Teachers from several nursery schools are being groomed at a National Early Childhood Education Conference to ensure young learners receive quality schooling.

Partnering with the Guyana-Jamaica Friendship Association (New York), the Education Ministry commenced the national workshop on Thursday with some 90 persons, and it will run for two days.
Speaking to the educators, Dr Gloria Thompson of the Association stated that opportunities for children should be expanded so that they can reach their maximum potential. She said it is evident that mental, physical and social developments are interconnected and can affect a child’s growth.
“We can expand early childhood education opportunities upon the lives of all the children that we serve. What happens to and for young children in the first years of life has a lasting impact upon their ability to be productive members of society,” she explained.
Throughout the programme, several facilitators will provide techniques to be used in the formal classroom setting. Those techniques will influence cognitive development in young children. Participants will also be briefed on how to identify developmental delays and children who are rapidly progressing.
Participants have been urged to use the skills gained during this initiative in the everyday delivery of education to young students.
“Forging collaborative partnerships and bonds with likeminded early childhood educators, and strengthening the foundation as well as the future of early childhood education in Guyana (are) very important. I place emphasis on quality, not something that is fragile,” Thompson noted.
Meanwhile, Assistant Chief Education Officer Samantha Williams related that the education sector will continue to solicit such collaborations with other agencies, to assist in the delivery of learning techniques.
In 2015, Guyana’s Early Childhood Development Project was launched with a World Bank grant totalling US$1.7 million. It was aimed at improving emergent literacy and numeracy outcomes for children at the nursery level and Primary Grade One in hinterland regions and targeted remote riverine areas.
The Guyana-Jamaica Friendship Association (New York) focuses on bettering health care and education in the Caribbean. Last year, Project Coordinator Quenita Waldrond-Lewis gave an insight into the developments that were observed during a similar worship. It recorded a 91 percentage change in literacy and a 95 percentage change for numeracy in the hinterland schools during the period September 2015 to June 2017.
Meanwhile, from September 2016 to June 2018, records show a positive change of 139 per cent in literacy and 133 per cent change in numeracy. These numbers showed improvements in the students’ ability to successfully complete tasks that are essential at their academic level.
To modernise teaching spaces, the Education Ministry will be introducing the newly reformed curriculum in schools across the country through a pilot programme. Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics (STEAM) studies would also be introduced to primary classes.