Basseterre St. Kitts, December 13th, 2012 (SKNIS): The National Strategic Plan for Increasing Access to Quality Early Childhood Services has been strengthened after a one day stakeholder consultation held at the NEMA Conference Room on Wednesday (December 12).
The Early Childhood Development Unit (ECDU) hosted the meeting to facilitate views from public and private sector agencies to ensure comprehensiveness of the plan and to strengthen collaboration and coordination between sectors on issues affecting children.
Chief Education Officer Clarice Cotton stated that the Early Childhood Development Unit has long been proactive in providing quality early childhood education. She noted that other countries even travel to St. Kitts to learn from its advancements.
Ms. Cotton expressed that the Ministry of Education has ensured that early childhood education is among its top priorities and the Ministry has in fact dedicated an entire section in its White Paper to its advancement.
“These plans from the White Paper were incorporated into the National Strategic Plan which we are here today to discuss and to fine-tune,” she said at the opening. “I want to say that the Ministry makes sure that ECDU is involved in all of the planning because right now stakeholders like UNICEF focus on early childhood. We also want to make sure that our focus is on children in the early years.”
The plan was developed earlier this year primarily by the ECDU staff with input from partners.
The draft document is in its final stage and is expected to be submitted to the Ministry for its approval shortly.
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