Hundreds Attend Early Childhood Exposition

Hundreds of parents, teachers and children turned out to support the Western Early Childhood Exposition, which was held at the Hague Show Ground in Trelawny on May 26.
As part of the day’s activities, students from Stettin, Hope and Ulster Spring Basic Schools showed off their talents for members of the audience, which included Governor General, His Excellency the Most Hon. Sir Howard Cooke.
In his address, Sir Howard commended organizers of the exposition, noting that it would inspire the people of Trelawny to go forward with the early childhood movement.
“Trelawny is coming back. I hear of the great developments that are taking place in the parish and I am pleased to see that the government is building new schools to facilitate our young children. I want to congratulate the organizers of this event and it is good that the parents can see what is happening,” he said.
The Governor General said he had no doubt that the new thrust in education would produce remarkable results.
While the Trelawny Health Services carried out health and dental checks, the Registrar General’s Department (RGD) facilitated applications for birth certificates.
The RGD’s Communications Officer, Nichole Robinson said that their involvement was part of the department’s public education campaign to share information with people across the island, on how to apply for marriage and birth certificates.
“It is a part of our on-going thrust to educate parents, especially in Child Month, and the programme has been successful so far. We have already taken the registration programme to Clarendon, and on that outreach we registered 227 children and counselled about 500 persons, and the outreach continues to grow as we travel in the rural areas,” she said.
Centre Manager for the Falmouth HEART Trust/NTA, Maxine Chambers told JIS News that she was happy to share in the event, because the agency had been responding to the needs of persons who showed interest in becoming early childhood educators.
“Falmouth HEART Trust/NTA offers information and training to teachers in the early childhood sector. A teacher who has been operating without certification can come to us and access the necessary training to acquire such.
We also offer training to certified early childhood teachers, so that they can upgrade themselves and improve their level of competency in the classroom,” she said.
Meanwhile, a teacher at the Stephen James Basic School in Duncans, Trelawny, Trudy-ann Francis told JIS News that the exposition would certainly have an impact on her students.
Parent, Nazrene Smith said the exposition had brought some amount of promotion for the parish, and it had provided teachers with creative ideas to enhance the teaching and learning environment.