Focus on early-childhood education, EEC tells Gov’t
Published:Wednesday | July 20, 2022 | 12:08 AM
THE ECUMENICAL Education Committee (EEC) is reiterating that the only saving grace for Jamaica’s children, especially in light of academic setbacks due to the pandemic, is to prioritise early-childhood education.
The EEC is comprised of representatives of the owners of denominational and trust schools and has been meeting regularly since 2009 to consider matters on education in Jamaica.
The EEC also includes representatives from the Jamaica Council of Churches (JCC), given that it owns 665 schools, including eight tertiary-level institutions. The JCC also operates 35 per cent of public schools in Jamaica, among them are some of the best performing schools at the primary and secondary levels.
After reviewing the Jamaica Education Transformation Commission’s 2021 report – which is supposed to provide the road map for the transformation of Jamaica’s education sector – the EEC had recommended that the Government pump more resources into the educational spaces for infants across the island.
At a forum, titled ‘The Future of Denominational and Trust Education in Jamaica’, hosted by the EEC and held on Thursday at St Michael’s College in St Andrew, Grace Baston, principal of Campion College and a member of the EEC, passionately outlined the fallout being experienced as a result of a lack of emphasis on the early-childhood sector.
“The EEC unequivocally supports the recommendation to prioritise the early-childhood sector for urgent intervention. That is, to ensure adequate financing of the sector. If necessary, reallocate funds from other levels of the education system, as recommended by the World Bank, this being the foundational level of the entire system,” Baston said.
“In many ways, this is the arena in which the battle is won or lost. We must not continue to leave the formation of our children at the most crucial stage of their development, to the least qualified and most poorly remunerated of our teachers, or deprive this sector of the funding required,” she added.
Baston also stated that the Ministry of Education and Youth, while giving a nod to this recommendation from the Jamaica Education Transformation Commission’s 2021 report, has insisted that all sectors need attention.
“That is true, but in the interest of addressing the root causes of half of our school-leavers being semi-literate and innumerate, early-childhood education must be prioritized! Finish! Argument finished! Done! Done!” Baston insisted.
Trisha Williams-Singh, chairman of the Early Childhood Commission (ECC), said she is delighted that the EEC is pushing to see more being done for the early-childhood education sector in response to the Patterson Report.
“It’s about time! I have heard this before. What I await is the action. I would like to see the modernisation of the early-childhood sector come to fruition, like now. We need to create more infant departments [and] more infant schools. [It is welcoming] to hear everyone talk about the true fix is at the early stage. We [want to see] funding coming into the early- childhood sector,” Williams said.
“I’m happy to hear all of this. I’m happy to hear the constant talk now. I just want to see it come to fruition. I want the action behind everything that is being said now,” she urged.
Williams-Singh suggested, as one solution, to marry infant schools with primary schools, which would be government-funded, and have the word ‘infant’ preceding ‘primary’ in the name of primary-level schools. She argued that the arrangement of the name would highlight the importance of the early-childhood sector.
“When you hear the word ‘infant’ first, you know that’s the most important stage; and then you transition to primary; and then you transition to secondary. Just an example, do you know like how you have New Forest Primary and Infant? The school should really [be] named New Forest Infant and Primary? That’s just my suggestion as someone who has spent the last 10 years giving back to education,” Williams-Singh told The Gleaner.
She said Jamaica has approximately 420 infant departments, which don’t require tuition payment. Overall, she said there are over 2,000 early-childhood institutions currently in operation.