Ministry of Education introduces ‘Child 5’ initiative for Child Month

A creative way of remembering children during this year’s Child Month has been put together by the Ministry of Education.{{more}}

The Child 5 initiative seeks to involve children in every aspect of society during the month of May. This was revealed during a media briefing on Child Month activities on Wednesday, April 27, 2011.

Activities of the Child 5 include setting aside five minutes for child expression on any issue, saving $5 daily for a needy child, publishing works of five children in a weekly newspaper, spending at least five minutes daily just listening to or chatting with your child, inter alia.

Speaking at the press conference which took place at the conference room of the Curriculum Unit, Aldia Gumbs Dyer, Senior Education Officer/ Curriculum, stated that during Child Month, importance should be placed on children; value and appreciation should be shown to each child as an individual.

Dyer highlighted the fact that in certain situations, for example, sexual consent, children are allowed to give consent at 16 years old, while they are still a child, as, according to the UN convention on the rights of a child, a child is any individual below the age of 18 years.

“I find, however, that too often, especially when your children have developed physical attributes that have made them look like adults, they are left to their own devices as adults, and the children suffer when that happens, and the community on a whole suffers,’ Dyer said.

Also speaking at the media briefing, Education Officer Cecile Harry highlighted the importance of Early Childhood Education as it provides a foundation for the success of children in primary and secondary schools.

Harry stated that the Ministry of Education has placed great importance on the development of Early Childhood Education Centres. She added that SVG currently has 129 centres, 120 of which are owned privately, and 9 owned by the Government. Government also assists private education centers through a monthly subvention of $400, and through school feeding programmes.

The importance of Early Childhood Education Centres keeping proper standards with regard to those standards set by the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) was explained by Education Officer Gwenette Cambridge. Cambridge said that the OECS has produced a checklist that monitors what is happening in pre-schools across the Caribbean.

Cambridge stated that centres here can raise their standards of operation to meet the standards mentioned in the OECS checklist, in this way raising their standards of the provision of Education.

She stated that some territories, such as Grenada, Jamaica and Dominica, have already embraced the OECS checklist.

The briefing was also attended by several individuals in the Early Childhood Education sector who presented their ideas for activities to be done during Child Month. The events for Child Month, the month of May, will include the Child Month March and Rally on May 4, several parenting workshops and church services. Child Month will be celebrated under the theme “Education: Unlocking Children’s Potential.”(OS)