OAS director says Ja's early childhood education programme .

[Lazie]

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

[Lazie]

Golding defends spending on early childhood education

Friday, October 31, 2008


PRIME Minister Bruce Golding has rejected a recent statement by Joan Neil, Organisation of American States (OAS) director, that Jamaica's spending on early childhood education comes at the expense of successive education levels.
"Now we are being told that we are being foolish. That is not the word that was used but that is what was meant. I do not necessarily accept that," Golding told a high-powered gathering of public and private sector workers at the National Productivity Conference 2008 in Kingston Tuesday.
Neil, who was speaking with the Observer after addressing the opening session of the two-day Caribbean Child Research Conference at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel last week, said that Government's current thrust to shore up early childhood education across the country is short-sighted and will not yield sustainable benefits. She said then, that Government was putting too much money into early childhood education alone and not enough for the children at higher levels.
But said Golding: "I found it strange because we were told before by international experts and organisations... that part of our problem is that we are not spending enough on early childhood education and it made a lot of sense to me."
He said over the past four years, the 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 and 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, antisocial behaviour, unpreparedness for the labour market and unemployment among youth.
Said Golding: "The primary level is a continuation of early childhood education. That training has to be done. It is not a matter of resources, we are to spend $54 billion on education this year and that is not an insignificant amount of money; we need to spend more but we also need to make sure we are getting value for the $54 billion."

http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/magaz..._EDUCATION.asp