Guyana scoring in nursery education

Dear Editor,
The recent pronouncement from the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) programme officer is a good one for Guyana in terms of the delivery of nursery education.
Globally, 1.7 million children of preschool age are not in preschool. However, Guyana has almost 80 per cent attendance at nursery education.
UNICEF is in tandem with the Ministry of Education. Its current theme of “Finishing School, a Right for Children’s Development” is really a fitting corollary to Guyana’s “Transforming the Nation through Inclusive Education.”
This explains why hard work continues to be ongoing in the area of keeping data on the number of dropouts in the school system, as well as all being proactive in winning back dropouts and then keeping them in school.
Recent scientific research has proven that learning and mental development begin immediately after birth. During the first three years of a child’s life, essential brain and neural development occurs.
Therefore, children greatly benefit by receiving education from a very young age. The Ministry of Education has a well-developed nursery programme that kick starts children from as early as under four years of age.
The ministry is also not averse to the spread of play schools, these filling the gap from birth to nursery, even as more mothers become a part of the country’s work force. One needs to bear cognisance of the fact that children are negatively affected by not being educated at an early age.
A study conducted by the Abecedarian Project evaluated two groups of children for an extended period of time, those with formal pre-school education and those not receiving any formal education.
According to their findings, children with formal education scored higher on reading tests during subsequent school years. It was also shown that the children who did not receive any formal education in their early years were more likely to struggle with substance abuse and delinquent behaviours in their early adult years. This is one aspect for research in Guyana, as the country is beginning to be confronted with more instances of juvenile delinquency.
It may mean that nursery education is one strategy to alleviate substance abuse and criminal behaviour that plague many adolescents and young adults in Guyana. Therefore, from even a social perspective, early years are critical in a child’s development.
Children develop rapidly during this time, therefore, governments must capitalise and potentially save itself from future problems. Investment in early childhood education will redound in profitable returns for both the society and the individual. It can also result in long-term savings for other social expenditures that are directed to dealing with people-oriented problems later in life.
Overall education provides the basis for acquisition of economically worthwhile skills that can contribute to increased and better employment and thus a healthy growing economy.
It should inspire parents to take better care of their own children and cash in on Guyana’s free system, thus enabling the society to fulfil its responsibility to respect and promote the rights of children.
Yours,
Jaipaul Narine