Regional Colloquium On Early Childhood Education To Be Held November 27 To 28

The first Regional Colloquium on Early Childhood Education will be held next week from November 27-28 at the University of the West Indies (UWI) Regional Headquarters, in Kingston.

The two-day conference is being held in collaboration with the Jamaica National (JN) Foundation, the Early Childhood Commission (ECC), the UWI School of Education and the Dudley Grant Early Childhood Resource Centre.

It is being held under the theme: ‘Building Strong Foundations: Advancing Early Childhood Education Through Policy, Practice and Partnership’.

Speaking at a JIS Think Tank held on Friday (November 21), at the Agency’s Television Department Office in Kingston, General Manager of the JN Foundation, Claudine Allen said the entity is honoured to be one of the partners supporting this cause.

“The event is not just a platform for discussion. It is actually a time when we pause to look at Jamaica’s early childhood landscape, its challenges, its remarkable potential and at the same time the legacy of a man who laid much of its foundation, Mr. Dudley R. Grant,” she said.

Educators, policymakers, researchers, and advocates will be in attendance both physically and virtually, to share in sessions aimed at examining the realities of early childhood education across the region and sharing research driven best practices.

Professor of Early Childhood Care and Education at UWI Mona, Deputy Dean of Graduate studies in the Faculty of Humanities and Education, and Manager of the Dudley Grant Early Childhood Resource Centre, Professor Zoyah Kinkead Clark said the colloquium is focused on “advocating for Jamaica’s most vulnerable citizens, its youngest children.”

“Dudley Grant, a man ahead of his time, understood the importance of partnership and perhaps fortuitously given the passage of Hurricane Melissa, Jamaica’s already vulnerable Early Childhood sector will need all hands-on deck from partners to help the sector recover. The impact of the inability to attend school on a regular basis has been known to have devastating impacts on young children… [and] at this point as an advocate for Jamaica’s children, this [colloquium] is needed now more than ever,” she said.

Each day, the sessions will run from 9 am to 4pm with over twenty speakers from countries across the Caribbean.

Though physical attendance for day one of the hybrid event is now fully subscribed, day two can still accommodate physical attendees. Interested persons are encouraged to register by visiting the JN Foundation webpage at www.jnfoundation.com.

Lead for the Youth and Education Programme with the JN Foundation, Sydoney Preddie, said discussions will be used as inputs to produce a report to help inform sustainable development goals in Early Childhood Education.

“The audience for the event will have about 100 persons per day. There’s an opportunity to view the session online, so you can register to view both days online or just for day one. We have chosen to stream the event because, we want to ensure that the information produced at this conference has a regional reach, so that others can participate in this excellent knowledge sharing opportunity,” she said.

Sessons will also focus on technology, the state of play, teaching experiences, as well as early childhood education delivery, all in the context of sustainability and resilience.

Educators, policy makers, advocates, students, and education practitioners, are all invited to attend the colloquium, which has no entry cost.