Early childhood development crucial to education process

Sep 03, 2008 News

– Minister Fox

Ensuring that early childhood development is afforded to all is an important element which lends to the promotion of effective holistic growth.
This notion was emphasised by Minister within the Education Ministry, Dr Desrey Fox, as she outlined how Government had taken a lead role in streamlining an integrated approach to childhood development.
The Minister was at the time addressing a gathering at a forum held at the Red Cross Society to mark the commencement of the activities of Education Month on Monday.

Minister within the Ministry of Education, Dr Desrey Fox

According to Minister Fox, the history of education, particularly in early childhood development services, had for sometime been largely fragmented, thus elements of centre based provisions were provided by the Ministry of Education through the nursery education programme and private service providers through Day Care and preschool, while the Health Ministry provides services for children through immunisation, nutrition and maternal and child health services.
As such, the Minister pointed out that integrated childhood development was therefore very rare.
As a result, she disclosed that the government through the Ministry of Education, with the assistance of other development partners, realised that in order to promote development of children there had to be an integrated early childhood development service.
“This approach will guarantee the best possible start to all children from 0 to six years old by addressing all of their needs in a comprehensive and integrated manner,” the Minister added.
She, however, said that it must be noted that the child is not a sector and that child development occurs holistically, thus a child as a human being cannot be compartmentalised into health, education, social and emotional variables, which are all part of a child’s life.
According to the Minister, the outlined dimensions can by no means be developed single-handedly.
She emphasised that the efforts of the many Government sectors as well as civil society have an integral role in this regard, as does the family, which has the most vital and primary obligation to the child.
“For this (integration) to happen in Guyana, attempts are already being made to develop a comprehensive early childhood development policy framework that integrates services for young children…I am aware that there was already a parental education workshop for training of trainers, in this case parents and other caregivers in early childhood development. The objective is to improve the knowledge and practices of parents and care givers in early child care.”
Minister Fox disclosed that the proposed level of intervention must be focused on the communities and the parents residing there, in order to provide them with a better sense of obligation towards preparing their child for lifelong good performances at the school level and to develop good citizens.
“Sometimes how we define our children is important to how we nurture them for the future…,” she speculated.
Second to the family, according to the Education Ministry’s Strategic Plan, is the reform of teacher education in Guyana, the Minister explained.
This aspect she declared as necessary, since in order to produce good students, an effective teaching service with quality teachers is required.
“It is realised that teachers’ education reform is an indispensable part of the whole reform effort…The system will not be able to fulfil the new mandate for education of our young people in the present world environment, thus teachers are being called upon to reach in ways that they did not experience as students and to teach subjects that may be new to them…”
All of the measures being implemented by the Ministry, the Minister said, come as part of plans intended to better the level of Education in Guyana.