MOE holds early childhood education workshop

The Ministry of Education continues its thrust towards an increased awareness of the importance of early childhood education and its mandate to offer universal access to this subsector.{{more}}

“This was clearly the intent when the Ministry of Education organized a training workshop/session for eight persons who would be trained as observers,” the ministry said in a statement yesterday.

The UNICEF-sponsored training session seeks to assess the quality of early childhood services offered in the 130 pre-schools in St Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG).

The facilitator of the workshop is Sian Williams, an independent consultant in early childhood policy development and planning.

Williams previously worked at the United Nations Children’s Fund and was posted to Jamaica in 2006 as the Caribbean Early Childhood Development Advisor.

She brings a wealth of experience to share with our early childhood trainees, the Ministry said.

During the four days of training, observers will be taught to use the Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale (ECERS) and the Infants Environment Rating Scale (IERS) effectively when they visit early childhood centres throughout SVG.

This process should take about three to four weeks.

It is envisioned that at the end of the training and the quality assessment survey that there will be marked improvements in early childhood environments, the quality of services and the programmes offered and the type of care that is given to our young children.

“It is only when early childhood operators raise the bar in the services that they offer that their operation will mirror that of international standards,” senior education officer Gwenette Cambridge said.

This is extremely important in light of the fact that the early childhood standards for SVG will soon be in operation to guide the way forward for this important subsector in education.