Latest update December 4th, 2024 2:40 AM
Ministry concludes Early Childhood Education Project
- significant improvement in targeted areas, says Coordinator
Bamia Primary School Choir performing a tribute
The Ministry of Education has concluded a project which sought to drastically improve the literacy and numeracy rates across Guyana, and to reduce inconsistencies in the provision of Early Childhood education, especially in hinterland and riverine communities.
The Guyana Early Childhood Education Project lasted from 2015 to 2018, and was funded by a grant of US$1.7M from the World Bank. This was a part of the Ministry of Education’s Nursery Education Action Plan, prepared from their Educational Strategic Action Plan 2014-2018.
On Tuesday last, the Education Ministry hosted the closing ceremony for this project at the Umana Yana, where its coordinator, Quenita Waldron Lewis, indicated that the performance of the children in targeted areas improved significantly. Remarking on the issue of education, Hon. Nicolette Henry said that the Government recognizes the importance of achieving inclusive, quality education, and that this project brings Guyana more in line with the UN’s sustainable development goals.
Three components were included in the project. The first component was a capacity building scheme for Nursery and Grade 1 teachers, costing USD$650,000. It involved training 41 Early Childhood Education “Master Trainers” who were dispersed to train a total of 526 educators across Guyana to learn and apply content knowledge to their pedagogy of the children they’re exposed to. The second component, costing USD$400,000 sought to supply teachers with more teaching materials. 750 Early Childhood Education Kits were distributed, along with a teachers’ manual for pedagogy in ALL nursery and grade 1 classrooms in Hinterland and riverine areas; as well as teacher training institutions, learning resource centres and departments of education across the country. The kits contain 31 multi-purpose, multi-use teaching and learning resources. The third component was the Primary Education Caregiver, which cost USD$350,000, sought emergent literacy and numeracy among nursery and grade 1 children in participating schools, and even among their siblings not yet of age to attend nursery school. The focus of this component was on the reinforcement of parents’ efforts and abilities to promote children’s learning at home. The campaign is called “Read Play Love.” It encouraged parents and caregivers of children to model behaviours at home that are more conducive for learning, so that children have a better transition into the public education system. A parental coaching programme reached more than 200 caregivers, through parent circles and parenting seminars.
The beneficiaries of this project are children generally between the age of 3-7, who are about to enter or are in nursery school and grade 1. The main targets were children living in the hinterland and riverine remote locations in Regions 1, 7, 8 and 9. Secondarily, 726 Primary caregivers, nursery and grade 1 teachers benefitted from teaching resources and methods that improve their work.
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