Upgrading of National Early Childhood Development Policy
~~Adz:Left~~The Early Childhood Development Centre in the Ministry of Education in conjunction with UNICEF has embarked on an Early Childhood Development Policy Upgrading. To accomplish this, a series of public consultations to garner views from various stakeholders have been organized. To date three consultations have been held - two in St. Kitts and one in Nevis. These were facilitated by Mr. Leon Charles of Grenada who has been contracted by UNICEF. Mrs. Vanta Walters, Early Childhood Co-ordinator and the rest of her staff were also present and available to answer questions that participants would have had. At each meeting Mr. Charles presented on the topic: Challenges Facing Early Childhood Development in the Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis. He highlighted the findings and their implications from an assessment that was conducted earlier in June, 2007.
On Monday 12th November, the very first public consultation was held in the Basseterre area at the Old Girls School. This saw a wide cross section of the society being represented. The second consultation was held on Tuesday 13th with supervisors and teachers of both public and private centres and the third was held that same evening in Nevis. Each forum saw over seventy-five stakeholders in attendance. Although many issues were raised by stakeholders there were three main areas that arose at all of the meetings. These are:
1. Access – How to get all children 0-4 years to participate in the early childhood development programme? According to Mr. Charles, the survey revealed that over 20% of the children are not registered with centres. Different strategies such as: - expansion of both government and private centres, building of new centres, government subsidizing some of the costs borne by centres, a selection process by public centres which would cater more to children from lower socio economic backgrounds first then those who come from more affluent backgrounds.
2. Children with Special Needs/ Disabilities - Many stakeholders were concerned about this issue, especially in light of what is happening in other places where inclusiveness has been outlined as the way forward. One of the commendations made was that facilities and resources- human and financial –be made available to accommodate inclusiveness.
3. Teacher Training – It was highlighted that only one-third of teachers have some kind of training. The participants underscored the fact that there is insufficient training available for teachers and enough options are not available. Recommendations were made that an Early Childhood Development training component be established at Clarence Fitzroy Bryant College and more teachers be sent overseas for training.
Two more consultations would be held on Monday 19th and Wednesday 21st November in Cayon at the Community Centre and in Sandy Point respectively. Persons from the general public are invited to come and share their views.
