Ronald Thwaites | Suffer little children

Fixing early-childhood education is the most immediate, affordable and indispensable way to quickly advance the prospects of a dispirited and low-performing nation. We can unite the nation around this cause. Everyone wants their pickney to come out good – better than them.

This is the age cohort where proper socialisation, the instilling of good ethical and humane values can be riveted and, yes, indoctrinated to the benefit of both the individual and the national collective. Alongside that is the learning to learn, in preparation for primary education and beyond.

We have not been intentional enough in doing all this. The emphasis on self-respect, self-control, restraint, spontaneity, respect for others; acknowledgement of and reverence for a higher power, regard for civic virtues; prizing citizenship, obedience to law and order are but a few of the virtues – the values and attitudes required to be inculcated for a safe, gentle and productive community.

Home, family and church used to imbue many social habits and moral principles. Tragically, we have gone soft on the practices of two-parent families, of domestic units where there is trust, faithfulness and hopefully love, and an acceptable modicum of material resources. Add to that the banality of much that we parade as culture, along with idleness and the toxicity of selfish hedonism. The influence of organised religion as a socialising force has waned by the design of some and the default of others.

SOME GOOD THINGS

But there are some good things going for us, too. There is a place in an early-childhood institution for every Jamaican child. That is a big achievement. The Brain Builders concept is sheer genius. So is the emphasis on the first 1,000 days of life from conception through to the first two years after birth. It’s hugely impressive to see more and more fathers tending to their little ones. Then there are the benefits of maternity and, maybe soon, paternity leave; and still, to an extent anyway, the yard and village culture of ‘minding pickney’.

Mr Seaga used to encourage me to pressure the Government to assume full responsibility for the early-childhood sector to ensure proper funding and standards. Neither he nor I were able to achieve this during our periods in office. It is encouraging to hear Minister Williams agree and state a resolve to bring it about. But it can’t be done on three per cent of the education budget.

The money which the World Bank and the Patterson-led commission recommend to be moved from the tertiary sector to early childhood ought to make this long-postponed shift possible. That can’t happen in the short run without chaos. And up to last week, officials of the ministry can still be heard peddling the delusion that quality education can be delivered without parents sharing the cost wherever they can.

Gradually but resolutely, every early-childhood teacher ought to be screened to ensure that they have the heart for the job, and should be required and facilitated to attain at least an associate degree. They must no longer be paid a subsidy but a living wage.

The children must be fed breakfast and lunch, preferably with local produce. Truancy must be corrected. Behaviour and learning challenges have to be identified and remediated. A covenant of participation and contribution is required between parents and school.

NOT BEYOND OUR EFFORT

None of this is beyond our effort and pocket. Some of it is happening already. For example, the religious communion which I serve, owns, sponsors or is closely associated with more than 60 early-childhood institutions. A renewed curriculum, heavy on values, attitudes, and religious and civic principles, is being infused into the existing teaching and school practices. Careful attention and training is designed to make sure that language and mathematics instructions are comprehensible to the children in front of us.

The Ministry of Education has undertaken to afford the gradual transition of these mostly basic schools to infant school status. There will be no automatic promotion of students. It is a contempt to place a child on an escalator of failure. We promise our God, the nation and the families who entrust their children to us, to do it right the first time.

This is just a start, and we are anxious to share with, and learn from, other practitioners.

Transforming the early-childhood experience is the beginning of the education revolution and national reconstruction. There is no other practical place to start nor a better moral platform to adopt.

“Taking a little child, Jesus said, ‘ Whoever receives one child such as this in my name, receives me… and the One who sent me.’” (Mark 9:36)

Rev Ronald G. Thwaites is an attorney-at-law. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com.