$161M Early Childhood Centre of Excellence commissioned

Nov 30, 2022 News

Kaieteur News – A $161M Early Childhood Centre of Excellence was on Monday commissioned at the University of Guyana (UG), Turkeyen Campus.

The Centre is funded by the Government through the Basic Needs Trust Fund Guyana (BNTF) and the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB).

Dr. Lidon Lashley, Director of the Centre said that the aim of the Centre is to provide opportunities for young learners to explore, grow, develop, innovate, innovate, invent and create.

“And we do so in an atmosphere that embraces the Ministry of Education’s Early Childhood curriculum but also extend it with practices and research that is done on the upper level,” he shared.

The Early Childhood Centre of Excellence which opened on Monday at the University of Guyana.

According to the Director, there are currently 102 learners enrolled at the Centre, “26 of whom have additional education needs and daily we try to provide a service that fit their need individually.” The Centre has 24 staff which comprises retired teachers, caregivers and cleaners.

Vice Chancellor of UG, Professor Paloma Mohamed shared that the Centre has been more than 10 years in the making and that it helps the university to find solutions to the challenges in the way in which children are socialized and raised.

“It has passed through the hands of three Vice Chancellors and I am exceedingly blessed and lucky to be the one that sees it to its completion to its transition,” she expressed.

The Vice Chancellor disclosed that the Centre didn’t initially cater to special needs children has opened a special needs classroom which caters to approximately eight children.

Professor Mohamed said it is hoped that the second phase of the project, establishing a Centre of Excellence for Primary Education, would materialize in the not too distant future.

Scenes from the commissioning of the Centre of Excellence on Monday.

Meanwhile, Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand who delivered the feature address said that Guyana has the highest nursery enrollment rate in the Commonwealth with over 85 percent of children enrolled.

As a result, the Minister said that the investment in the Centre is fitting since Guyana and its Caribbean sister countries can learn from practices that would be implemented at the institution.

“I hold a strong view that the important level of education in this country is at the early childhood age, it’s at that age we must figure out even from as early as that age where talent lie, where strengths lie, what weaknesses exist in particular children and how we can overcome those weakness not only in that individual but whenever we encounter them at anywhere in the country. And so this as a research unit we can make all the difference in education in Guyana,” she explained.

Karen Roopchand, a representative of the Ministry of Finance said that the Centre was designed as a premier place to provide a developmentally appropriate learning environment for young children in the surrounding communities and give early childhood education students a venue to gain practical experience in the care and education of children.

The $161,271,131 facility was constructed by Sattaur Mohammed and Sons Construction and the project was supervised by E&A Consultant Inc. The Centre comprises of seven classrooms for early learners, classrooms for adults, a staff room, offices, kitchen facility, observation and conference rooms, a sick bay and washroom facilities which were also design to facilitate persons living with disabilities.

Guyana has several Early Childhood Development Centres however the $161M facility is the first Centre of Excellence. Jamaica is the only other Caribbean country to have an Early Childhood Centre of Excellence.

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