More J’can children to benefit from trained early childhood educators, says Crawford

WESTERN BUREAU:

Junior Education Minister Rhoda Moy Crawford says the Government is intensifying efforts to ensure more Jamaican children have access to trained early childhood educators, saying it is critical to the country’s long-term social and economic development.

Crawford, who was speaking at the Seventh Annual Professional Development Institute conference in Montego Bay, which was hosted by the Early Childhood Commission (ECC) earlier this week, says the Government is committed to getting it right with early childhood education.

 “We are committed to providing one trained teacher per institution registered with the ECC, having the permit to operate at the infant enrolment per teacher ratio as outlined by the Early Childhood Act,” said Crawford.

She added that the Government has made major financial and policy commitments aimed at strengthening early childhood education across the island, while revealing that approximately $30.8 billion, which is 19.5 per cent of the ministry’s recurrent budget, has been allocated to the early childhood sector.

“This represents a foundational investment in Jamaica’s human capital pipeline, not a marginal allocation. It reflects a deliberate policy commitment to strengthening access, quality staffing, training, maintenance support, and caregiver development across the sector,” she said.
Based on information sources from the Early Childhood Commission, Jamaica’s early childhood sector, which caters to children from birth to eight years old, currently serves some 107,000 children across more than 2,300 public and private early childhood institutions. 

Crawford also stated that 108 teachers at the early childhood level have already been announced as part of the efforts to address staffing gaps within the sector.
“It is to be noted that approximately 81,000 learners at the centrally led schools, as well as the lower primary grades one to three, are exposed to a trained teacher,” she said.
Crawford added that more learners are now benefiting from trained educators within approximately 500 infant schools and 766 primary-level institutions across Jamaica.

According to her, the Government also acknowledged the contribution of privately operated institutions to the development of the sector.
 “Approximately 24,000 learners in fully private early childhood institutions are also exposed to trained teachers,” said Crawford, in further emphasising the Government’s investment in the professional development of early childhood practitioners.
“The ministry continues to provide approximately $10 million annually in professional development scholarship support to assist the upgrading of untrained practitioners, with the process managed through the ECC,” she explained.
Crawford said the Government’s support extends beyond staffing to include maintenance assistance, institutional strengthening, caregiver stipends and the expansion of infant departments attached to primary schools.
“One good that will come from our rebuilding efforts is that for every one of our primary schools that has the space to accommodate infant departments, those will be constructed there,” she said, in highlighting that meaningful educational transformation must begin in the earliest years of a child’s life.
“Educational transformation cannot occur without resilient, competent, compassionate, and empowered educators. Jamaica is blessed with early childhood practitioners who help to shape not only academic readiness, but also emotional security, social awareness, confidence, creativity, and character,” she said.

albert.ferguson@gleanerjm.com