107 Early-Childhood Institutions Ready For Transition

Minister of Education, Youth and Information, Hon. Fayval Williams, says there are 107 early-childhood institutions that have been assessed as ready to be transitioned to government infant schools.

Making her presentation in the 2021/22 Sectoral Debate in the House of Representatives on April 28, Mrs. Williams said this transition supports the modernisation of the early-childhood sector in which the Government makes available more government-run early-childhood institutions with trained practitioners.

She informed that government infant schools only account for about 18 per cent of the early-childhood sector.

“We will also intensify the in-service training of our early-childhood practitioners to expand their understanding of the value of ‘play’ and friendly teacher interaction for children at this age. We have to scale these up so that our children are ready when they get to primary school,” she said.

The Minister pointed out that the rollout of the Brain Builders and the early stimulation programmes will be continued.

Meanwhile, she said some 33,000 children or 85.9 per cent of four-year-olds in schools completed assessments in the Jamaica School Readiness Assessment, which offers some insight into the prevalence of developmental disability.

“Of these, almost one-third of children were identified as having at least one developmental problem. The most common developmental problems identified were in understanding (13.8 per cent) and learning (12.9 per cent),”she informed.

The Jamaica School Readiness Assessment is an early learning measure which focuses on Early Literacy Skills and Early Numeracy Skills. The results of this tool were developed by Professor Maureen Samms-Vaughan. It is designed to assess school readiness of four-year-old Jamaican children in the areas of general development, academic performance and behaviour.

“We wholeheartedly support these annual assessments and will ensure that they are institutionalised because they give us early signs about our children starting at age four years and once we get that information, we can take the necessary action,” the Minister said.