PM to focus war on early education

Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves has announced that after universal secondary education, his government would tackle universal primary education and later, early childhood education.

He noted that children from ages 3- 5 years begin to observe and gain knowledge at this stage, but it has to be done structurally so that they get a good start. {{more}}

He pointed out that three new primary schools will be constructed at Bequia, Edinboro and Fairhall and each of them will have a section for early childhood education.

The Prime Minister commented that more women are going to work and are leaving children with grandmothers to take care of them. He said this is too stressful for the senior citizens and this move is part of government’s making provision for the ambitious women who earn a living for family.

Dr. Gonsalves however noted that there needs to be greater improvement in the sciences and the standard needs to be lifted to about 33-40%. He said there is a need for more teachers and laboratories, hence the reason to build the state of the art centre at the Bishops College compound.

He also admitted that special education is another area that needs to be uplifted, since there are numerous categories in special education such as dyslexia and attention deficit disorder.

“Children who have problems with their hearing and their eyes will be tested and have their problems corrected, they are not dunce. We can’t correct decades of neglect, but we are getting there and people see that it is working.”