Sixty teachers trained to make preschool to primary transition smoother

BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – OVER 60 of the Federation’s kindergarten teachers have become more capable in easing their students’ transition to primary school from preschool, thanks to the Early Childhood Development Unit’s (ECDU) Transition Programme.

The OAS-funded programme is a key component of two major education policy documents that have passed through Parliament recently: the Early Childhood Development Policy and the White Paper on Education Development and Policy. 

Speaking exclusively to SKNVibes, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Education Osmond Petty informed of the training the teachers underwent in their quest to smooth that preschool to primary transition.

“The activity brought together kindergarten teachers to inform them of the kinds of experiences preschool children would have been involved in and to sensitise them to the needs of our preschoolers. Kindergarten is not much removed from preschool and many of those preschool activities should continue for the first few months.”

Petty praised the work of the ECDU, calling it “one of the flagship programmes of the Ministry”. He noted the issue of effective transition from one educational institution to the next was a priority area of his Ministry.

“The primary to secondary and secondary to tertiary transitions are equally as important as that of the preschool to primary. To address this issue, the White Paper contains implicit and explicit programmes for helping primary school students transfer to secondary school. Additionally, many of the activities the Ministry is seeking to institute in the high schools, such as career guidance and counselling, are part of our efforts to enhance the transition process from secondary to tertiary institutions,” said Petty.

Starett Greene, the St. Kitts-Nevis OAS Representative, expressed his organisation’s satisfaction at the outcome and pledged its continued collaboration with the Ministry, provided the necessary resources are available. However, the diplomat stressed that persons should not expect immediate results and that, rather, “the fruits of the investment will be seen two to three years down the road when our children are functioning effectively as students”.

The Transition Programme began in the late 1990s and has since expanded due to support from the OAS and UNICEF. The Programme has seen the successful completion of four phases, which include having preschoolers spend a few hours each day at nearby primary schools and the introduction of workshops to expose kindergarten teachers to the preschool curriculum.