Dear Editor,
The first article that caught my eye in the Jamaica Observer of November 20 concerned the Early Childhood Commission's plans to assess the readiness of four-year-olds for primary education. My first question was: Another assessment, to what end? As I continued to read the article, I felt like I was stuck in a time warp. It is clear that no education system will be perfect, but Jamaica seems to be experiencing perennial education woes.
Our troubles at the early childhood level run deeper than the need to assess four-year-olds. We need more trained teachers and more funding. Without trained teachers and adequate funding, the readiness assessment will not have the desired effect. For one thing, a large number of children cannot afford the fees for early childhood institutions and their first access to formal education is at the primary level. These are the same children, for the most part, who are unprepared for primary education. The government needs to address the top-heavy education ministry and pump more funds into the sector. That way we could have more trained teachers in early childhood institutions and more government control would result in a greater number of children being able to access early childhood education.
In some Caribbean territories, for example, Barbados, children enter the government system at age four. There are reception and infant divisions attached to every primary level institution. Maybe Jamaica needs to consider such a model. That way, children would more likely meet a trained teacher by age four. It has already been firmly established that what happens to children at the early childhood level is a strong indicator of their performance throughout school. As Professor Samms-Vaughan, chair of the Early Childhood Commission, has said: "Early childhood development is important to Jamaica because this is the time that children's brains are developing maximally and it is also the time when we get the greatest investment on education.
"For every dollar invested in a child in the early childhood period, we get returns on investment of about 17-18 times and it is the highest rate of returns." If we want to decrease crime and poverty and boast a literate populace, our best bet would be to invest greatly in EC education. It is a shame that the EC level gets only about 2.2 per cent of the education budget. It would be quite enlightening to see where most of the education budget goes. That would certainly underscore the priorities of the Jamaican Government.
Tennisha A Morris
St Andrew
literacyadvocate@gmail.com
Early childhood education needs more funds
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The first article that caught my eye in the Jamaica Observer of November 20 concerned the Early Childhood Commission's plans to assess the readiness of four-year-olds for primary education. My first question was: Another assessment, to what end? As I continued to read the article, I felt like I was stuck in a time warp. It is clear that no education system will be perfect, but Jamaica seems to be experiencing perennial education woes.
Our troubles at the early childhood level run deeper than the need to assess four-year-olds. We need more trained teachers and more funding. Without trained teachers and adequate funding, the readiness assessment will not have the desired effect. For one thing, a large number of children cannot afford the fees for early childhood institutions and their first access to formal education is at the primary level. These are the same children, for the most part, who are unprepared for primary education. The government needs to address the top-heavy education ministry and pump more funds into the sector. That way we could have more trained teachers in early childhood institutions and more government control would result in a greater number of children being able to access early childhood education.
In some Caribbean territories, for example, Barbados, children enter the government system at age four. There are reception and infant divisions attached to every primary level institution. Maybe Jamaica needs to consider such a model. That way, children would more likely meet a trained teacher by age four. It has already been firmly established that what happens to children at the early childhood level is a strong indicator of their performance throughout school. As Professor Samms-Vaughan, chair of the Early Childhood Commission, has said: "Early childhood development is important to Jamaica because this is the time that children's brains are developing maximally and it is also the time when we get the greatest investment on education.
"For every dollar invested in a child in the early childhood period, we get returns on investment of about 17-18 times and it is the highest rate of returns." If we want to decrease crime and poverty and boast a literate populace, our best bet would be to invest greatly in EC education. It is a shame that the EC level gets only about 2.2 per cent of the education budget. It would be quite enlightening to see where most of the education budget goes. That would certainly underscore the priorities of the Jamaican Government.
Tennisha A Morris
St Andrew
literacyadvocate@gmail.com
Early childhood education needs more funds
-->