Basseterre, St. Kitts (March 18, 2004): President of the Green Valley Festival Mr Vernon Benjamin presented a Dell computer system to the Cayon Day Care Centre yesterday.
During a parent/teachers’ meeting Mr Benjamin handed over the computer to resource teacher from the Early Childhood Unit Ms June Wallace who in turn gave it to day care supervisor Paulette Tyson.
Mr. Benjamin expressed his organization’s pleasure with presenting the computer to the preschool administration stating that it falls in line with their policy which is to promote community development through cultural involvement. He said he felt that the gift would definitely help to promote community development.
Ms. Wallace thanked the Green Valley Committee for its valuable gift and assured Mr Benjamin that the computer would be put to good use as it would cut down on paper work, enable proper documentation and increase the capacity for data storage.
Meanwhile Coordinator of Early Childhood Mrs Vanta Walters said she was very pleased for the proactive step taken by Green Valley in taking a role in the development of early childhood education.
Mrs Walters called on other institutions, groups, businesses and even individuals to do the same in their respective communities adding that she looks forward to the day when all the classrooms within early childhood centres would be outfitted with computers.
The coordinator said she could not emphasize enough the need for children to be exposed to technology from a very early age in order to remain on par with their counterparts in the developed countries of the world.
According to Mrs Walters these children would some day be in a competitive situation with others throughout the globe and when that days comes there should be no handicap based on a technological deficit.
She said while preliminary discussions among government officials have been undertaken concerning computers in preschools, the private sector and community groups can assist with meeting early childhood needs.
