Gov’t Investing in Early Childhood Education

Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Education, Skills, Youth and Information, Dr. Kasan Troupe, says the Government is committed to the development of early childhood education as the foundation for learning.

She informed that $39.3 billion, representing about 20 per cent of the Ministry recurrent budget of $193.3 billion, is dedicated to the sector, which caters to children zero to eight years old.

Dr. Troupe was addressing the JN Foundation and University of the West Indies (UWI) School of Education’s Dudley Grant Early Childhood Resource Centre Awards Luncheon on Tuesday (April 14) at JN Financial Centre in St. Andrew.

She reiterated the Government’s pledge to ensure that every basic school has a trained teacher with a degree.

“The commitment was made by our Minister to ensure for this September we provide [for] the gaps that exist. When we did the analysis, 108 of those schools are without a trained teacher, and the Government has committed to ensure that at least one trained teacher is in those public-private institutions,” she said.

There are more than 52,000 children attending basic schools across the island.

Dr. Troupe indicated that the majority of students at the early-childhood level are exposed to a trained teacher, with full coverage from grade one to three.

“They’re anchored in our primary sector. We have 81,000 learners at that level,” she pointed out, adding that every learner in the country’s approximately 600 infant schools is also exposed to a trained teacher.

Outside of the government system, Dr. Troupe said that there are 24,000 learners in fully private early-childhood institutions and they are exposed to trained teachers.

Under the theme ‘Building a legacy of excellence in early-childhood education’, the awards ceremony recognised 18 stalwarts for their contribution to the growth and development of the early-childhood education sector since the 1960s.

Awarded in the category of Excellence in Teacher Education and Research were Professor Maureen Samms-Vaughan, Professor Emeritus Errol Miller, Dr. Christopher Clarke, Professor Emerita Elsa Leo-Rhynie and Myrtle Daley.

For Early Childhood Education Innovation and Impact, the award went to Ceceile Minott, Masie Wint and Marjorie Gaynor, while the Policy and Institutional Development Award went to Marva Gordon, Evadne Vennor and Lloyd McLeod.

Rose Davis (Posthumous), William McLeod, Fay Corothers and Joyce Jarrett who worked alongside pioneer Dudley Grant, were also honoured.

Described as the father of early-childhood education, the late Dudley Grant in whose honour the awards were presented, had a career spanning almost 40 years, driven by a passion for and commitment to early childhood development.

He developed and advanced training programmes for teachers, implemented the Project for Early Childhood Education and was instrumental in the establishment of the Hope Valley Experimental School to integrate children with disabilities.

Dr. Troupe commended the award recipients and hailed the legacy of Dudley Grant, whom she noted, left an indelible mark on the education landscape in Jamaica.

“We continue to build on this legacy in many ways… Jamaica has come a far way carrying on the legacy of Dudley to ensure that the early years are perfected, getting it right from the start,” she said.