GTU supports early nursery registration despite concerns

Mar 14, 2014 News

The ambitious move by the Ministry of Education to introduce early nursery registration has been lauded in many quarters. However, officials within the Guyana Teachers’ Union (GTU), while supportive of the development, are convinced that there could be some looming disadvantages.

GTU President,
Colin Bynoe

“My question, while it is seemingly a good idea, is ‘are all children in Guyana of that age ready for such a programme?’” was the query from GTU President, Colin Bynoe.
He speculated that although some children may be “well off” whereby they are able to matriculate and have no difficulty at the nursery level, even at an early stage, there are others who live in poverty who may not be able to so cope.
“We need to find out if all of these children are ready in terms of potty training, knowing base colours, knowing the alphabet…A lot of the children are indeed intelligent, but how many children of that age in Guyana are ready?”
Moreover, Bynoe asked whether the revision to the nursery entry age is a move designed to cater to a certain social class.
“Is it that we are propagating a new system for the rich or those who are ‘well-off’?”
However, he noted that the move could be strategic in the quest to ensure that the academic development of children is not stymied.
But there is no denying, the GTU President noted, that teachers will be affected in some way.
“I see this as a move that will affect my teachers…My teachers will have to deal with more crying children, runny noses and children who are not properly potty trained; that in itself could be an added burden to teachers.”
Although the GTU is prepared to analyse the situation over time before making a conclusive decision, Bynoe disclosed that the body has started its own discussions with teachers. Any concerns brought to the Ministry, he noted, will be based on the experiences of teachers, even as he intimated that “if they bring the necessary evidence to prove that the classroom sizes (for instance) need to be reduced, then we will fight vigorously for that, because these three-year-olds, they are not all ready for class.”
Bynoe is convinced that smaller classes of these young children could be the defining tactic to aid the early entry development.
“With smaller classroom sizes, teachers would have more time for individual attention,” said Bynoe, who believes that a national consultation should have been held ahead of the early entry implementation which is set to begin when the new school year commences in September.

GTU General Secretary, Coretta McDonald

Previously, a child had to be three years old by March 31 in order to enter Nursery School in September of the same year. However, with the revised nursery registration programme, children born on or before June 30 are now eligible for placement at a Nursery School in the year they would have turned three.
And this is definitely an advantageous aspect of the revised programme, as according to GTU General Secretary, Coretta McDonald, “there were children who were left behind; they had to wait until the next year to start nursery because they were born at a certain time…”
McDonald observed though that it would be remiss of the Education Ministry to not put systems in place to ensure the smooth implementation of the programme.
In addition to the downsizing of classes, the General Secretary is optimistic that special attention should be given to those nursery trained teachers so as to enable them to better deal with the younger children in their care.
“We would want to request that while the Ministry is embarking on this, that systems are in place to train teachers to deal with these children at this early stage…These teachers will now be required to have a whole lot more patience, lots more tolerance and it would require teachers to do a lot more than just adhere to their timetables during classes.”
“So when you have to teach and are still expected to do a certain amount of work coupled with changing pampers and feeding it would take away from the time you are spending teaching the children the skills required at the first year level,” added McDonald.
Early entry into the education system, McDonald noted, could lend to children inculcating the right attitude to education from an early stage.
“This is a feeding machine…it is being fed from nursery to primary to secondary and if the right attitude is not inculcated coming from the nursery level then when they get into the primary schools we are likely to find lots of confusion where children can’t write, they can hardly hold a pencil, they can’t sit among their peers, they have not learnt the skills of sharing and associating with friends,” McDonald considered.
As such, she disclosed that the GTU, despite some concerns, is supportive of the new registration programme.