OAS director says Ja's early childhood education programme short-sighted
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
THE Jamaican Government's current thrust to shore up early childhood education across the country is short-sighted and will not yield sustainable benefits, said director of the Organisation of American States (OAS), Joan Neil has said.
"We are putting too much money into early childhood education alone and not enough for the ones who follow on - the 17-35 [age-group]. Nobody is caring about them; I'm speaking of the ones who can't pass the HEART entry level and what is being done about it? Nothing.
From left, OAS director Joan Neil with University of the West Indies Chancellor Dr Nigel Harris and minister of information, culture, youth and sport Olivia 'Babsy' Grange. (Photo: Bryan Cummings)
"This is a country in crisis. The Jamaica Lifelong Learning said we have 7,500 Jamaican youth who can't read or write and that 7,500 is in a population of 2.6 million. This is a country in crisis. And it's not just a matter of training them, it's a holistic approach," Neil told the Observer.
Over the past four years, the Jamaican Government has taken a number of steps to improve the education, care and protection of the very young. Among them are the passing of the Child Care & Protection Act which paved the way for the Children's Registry and the Office of the Children's Advocate. It also set up the Early Childhood Commission to streamline the educational services at that level and has implemented mandatory registration of early childhood institutions.
But that approach, according to Neil, was not enough to stem the tide of illiteracy and innumeracy, anti-social behaviour, unpreparedness for the labour market and unemployment among youth.
Neil, who was speaking with the Observer after addressing the opening session of the two-day Caribbean Child Research Conference at the Jamaica Pegasus, said it was not enough to stem the tide of illiteracy and innumeracy, anti-social behaviour, unpreparedness for the labour market and unemployment among youth.
"Certainly there can be no more bottom-up approach to research and problem-solving than to put children at the centre of research efforts and to listen to their perspectives and perceptions...But we also need to go a step further," said Neil.
That further step, she said, was to provide similar financial and material resources all through adolescence "to ensure sustained increases over time in child-related programmes and projects that children and their parents are supported and motivated to make significant climb out of poverty".
Added Neil: "I don't see any systemic approach to solving the problem. We are using a selective approach and if we continue we will not become a service economy by 2020," stressing that isolating one particular cohort in research efforts was only a partial solution.
The OAS director said Jamaica should learn from countries like Barbados which she said a more action-oriented response to the problems of youth and children.
"It has one of the highest literacy levels in the whole world...that's because they allocate on a consistent basis over time, a large and increasing share of the public budget to the public education and training and placement of youth," she said.
http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/...RT_SIGHTED.asp
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
THE Jamaican Government's current thrust to shore up early childhood education across the country is short-sighted and will not yield sustainable benefits, said director of the Organisation of American States (OAS), Joan Neil has said.
"We are putting too much money into early childhood education alone and not enough for the ones who follow on - the 17-35 [age-group]. Nobody is caring about them; I'm speaking of the ones who can't pass the HEART entry level and what is being done about it? Nothing.
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"This is a country in crisis. The Jamaica Lifelong Learning said we have 7,500 Jamaican youth who can't read or write and that 7,500 is in a population of 2.6 million. This is a country in crisis. And it's not just a matter of training them, it's a holistic approach," Neil told the Observer.
Over the past four years, the Jamaican Government has taken a number of steps to improve the education, care and protection of the very young. Among them are the passing of the Child Care & Protection Act which paved the way for the Children's Registry and the Office of the Children's Advocate. It also set up the Early Childhood Commission to streamline the educational services at that level and has implemented mandatory registration of early childhood institutions.
But that approach, according to Neil, was not enough to stem the tide of illiteracy and innumeracy, anti-social behaviour, unpreparedness for the labour market and unemployment among youth.
Neil, who was speaking with the Observer after addressing the opening session of the two-day Caribbean Child Research Conference at the Jamaica Pegasus, said it was not enough to stem the tide of illiteracy and innumeracy, anti-social behaviour, unpreparedness for the labour market and unemployment among youth.
"Certainly there can be no more bottom-up approach to research and problem-solving than to put children at the centre of research efforts and to listen to their perspectives and perceptions...But we also need to go a step further," said Neil.
That further step, she said, was to provide similar financial and material resources all through adolescence "to ensure sustained increases over time in child-related programmes and projects that children and their parents are supported and motivated to make significant climb out of poverty".
Added Neil: "I don't see any systemic approach to solving the problem. We are using a selective approach and if we continue we will not become a service economy by 2020," stressing that isolating one particular cohort in research efforts was only a partial solution.
The OAS director said Jamaica should learn from countries like Barbados which she said a more action-oriented response to the problems of youth and children.
"It has one of the highest literacy levels in the whole world...that's because they allocate on a consistent basis over time, a large and increasing share of the public budget to the public education and training and placement of youth," she said.
http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/...RT_SIGHTED.asp
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