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<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=1 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD><SPAN class=TopStory>A new day for Jamaica's children</SPAN>
<SPAN class=Subheadline></SPAN></TD></TR><TR><TD>Geof Brown
Friday, January 26, 2007
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<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=5 width=80 align=left border=0><TBODY><TR><TD>
</TD></TR><TR><TD><SPAN class=Description>Geof Brown</SPAN></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><P class=StoryText align=justify>"Start them right, make them bright" was the theme at the media launch of a national public education campaign at the Jamaica Conference on Wednesday. But it was not just about a catchy slogan. The Early Childhood Commission (ECC) has engaged a widely representative group of various entities connected to the development and well-being of Jamaica's children in a show of united effort that is truly a new day and a final breakthrough in a serious approach to early childhood care and development. As the ECC itself observes in a published "User Guide" to the Early Childhood Act under which its powers are mainly exercised, "The care that children receive in the first six to eight years of life will determine the adults that they will become." The start-up of a national public education campaign, in collaboration with the Ministry of Education's Enhancement of Basic Schools Project, is therefore a no-nonsense beginning of the new attack on a very old problem.<P class=StoryText align=justify>Why it has taken so long to recognise that the building of a foundation is the indispensable pre-condition for a secure upper structure is incredible to understand. Early childhood development is that necessary foundation. It is not wise to point this out; it has been simply stupid not to recognise it. To quote the ECC, ".these are the years when the foundation for growth and development; health and nutrition; physical, social, language, creative and cognitive abilities is laid. The experiences children have during these early years continue to influence them when they become teenagers and adults." For a dramatic case in point to bear out the significance of this truism, I draw your attention to a Mark Wignall feature, "The rise of Shine", in the Sunday Observer of January 21, chronicling the true story of the development of a vicious gunman and rapist who started out as a child who received poor and neglectful care.<P class=StoryText align=justify>So as we now reap the whirlwind from the wind that was sown in poor emphasis on early childhood care for much too long, it is good for the ECC to remind us that "the experiences children have and the way in which they interact with their parents, family members, other adults and caregivers influence the way they learn and behave". What has resulted from that basic observation is the legislation promulgating provisions under the Early Childhood Act.
Those provisions have been organised as 12 principal standards required for a comprehensive implementation of first-class child care using an integrated approach of a variety of public and private agencies. The 12 standards binding Early Childhood Institutions (ECIs) under the new law, cover the following: Staffing, Development and Educational Programmes, Interactions and Relationships with Children, Equipment, Furnishing and Supplies, Health, Nutrition, Safety, Child Rights Protection and Equality, Interactions with Parents and Community Members, Administration and Finance.
It will be obvious that these standards mean business. And it makes sense that there be a national education campaign to meet the revolutionary requirements which will now prevent any old Jane or Joe putting up a shingle in front of a shack and calling it a day-care facility. Under the new law, an ECI is defined as "any place that cares for four or more children under the age of six years for up to six hours per day". This includes nurseries, cent
<SPAN class=Subheadline></SPAN></TD></TR><TR><TD>Geof Brown
Friday, January 26, 2007
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=5 width=80 align=left border=0><TBODY><TR><TD>
</TD></TR><TR><TD><SPAN class=Description>Geof Brown</SPAN></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><P class=StoryText align=justify>"Start them right, make them bright" was the theme at the media launch of a national public education campaign at the Jamaica Conference on Wednesday. But it was not just about a catchy slogan. The Early Childhood Commission (ECC) has engaged a widely representative group of various entities connected to the development and well-being of Jamaica's children in a show of united effort that is truly a new day and a final breakthrough in a serious approach to early childhood care and development. As the ECC itself observes in a published "User Guide" to the Early Childhood Act under which its powers are mainly exercised, "The care that children receive in the first six to eight years of life will determine the adults that they will become." The start-up of a national public education campaign, in collaboration with the Ministry of Education's Enhancement of Basic Schools Project, is therefore a no-nonsense beginning of the new attack on a very old problem.<P class=StoryText align=justify>Why it has taken so long to recognise that the building of a foundation is the indispensable pre-condition for a secure upper structure is incredible to understand. Early childhood development is that necessary foundation. It is not wise to point this out; it has been simply stupid not to recognise it. To quote the ECC, ".these are the years when the foundation for growth and development; health and nutrition; physical, social, language, creative and cognitive abilities is laid. The experiences children have during these early years continue to influence them when they become teenagers and adults." For a dramatic case in point to bear out the significance of this truism, I draw your attention to a Mark Wignall feature, "The rise of Shine", in the Sunday Observer of January 21, chronicling the true story of the development of a vicious gunman and rapist who started out as a child who received poor and neglectful care.<P class=StoryText align=justify>So as we now reap the whirlwind from the wind that was sown in poor emphasis on early childhood care for much too long, it is good for the ECC to remind us that "the experiences children have and the way in which they interact with their parents, family members, other adults and caregivers influence the way they learn and behave". What has resulted from that basic observation is the legislation promulgating provisions under the Early Childhood Act. Those provisions have been organised as 12 principal standards required for a comprehensive implementation of first-class child care using an integrated approach of a variety of public and private agencies. The 12 standards binding Early Childhood Institutions (ECIs) under the new law, cover the following: Staffing, Development and Educational Programmes, Interactions and Relationships with Children, Equipment, Furnishing and Supplies, Health, Nutrition, Safety, Child Rights Protection and Equality, Interactions with Parents and Community Members, Administration and Finance.
It will be obvious that these standards mean business. And it makes sense that there be a national education campaign to meet the revolutionary requirements which will now prevent any old Jane or Joe putting up a shingle in front of a shack and calling it a day-care facility. Under the new law, an ECI is defined as "any place that cares for four or more children under the age of six years for up to six hours per day". This includes nurseries, cent