Teachers benefit from one-year certificate programme

Arising out of a study conducted by Jamalco, which showed the need for significant training in the teaching of numeracy and literacy at the early-childhood level, the ACEP (Advancing Childhood Education Programme) was designed.

The Mico University College was contracted by Jamalco to develop a one-year certificate programme in early-childhood education and deliver it initially to 150 teachers in Clarendon and Manchester in 2012. The first cohort graduated in 2013.

All trainees who successfully completed the programme received a Mico certificate and eight academic credits that can be used towards satisfying the requirements for a Bachelor's of Education degree in early-childhood education.

The course comprised, among other areas, teaching of literacy and numeracy (content and methodology), and teaching children with special learning needs.

Fast-forward to 2019 and the programme has now come to a close with the fifth cohort graduating last Thursday at the Wembley Resource Centre in Hayes, Clarendon.

LOW READING LEVELS

Christopher Buckmaster, director of human resources, security and corporate services at Jamalco, said the research which was done in 2009 indicated that 42 per cent of early-childhood students in Clarendon and 33 per cent in Manchester were not reading at the required level.

"It was those alarmingly low rates that stirred us into action and forced us to intervene and try to change, as best as possible, the academic outcomes of elementary students in our operating areas," he said, adding that many teachers at the basic-school level are poorly trained or pretrained, and are ill-equipped to help their students achieve the necessary mastery.

The programme was funded by the Noble Foundation.

Keynote speaker at the graduation, Trisha Williams-Singh, chairman of the Early Childhood Commission, recommended that everyone, including parents and educators, arm themselves with the same training as the graduates received.

"Everything that we do as a parent, as an adult, as an educator, should be about them - the child, safety and standards, that's all they want," she said. "We are seeing 259 early childhood institutions; 57 are average - meaning they get absolutely no subsidy from taxpayers, 42 are public (government-funded), 160 are public/private (receives a government subsidy)."

She urged the graduates to go back to their early childhood institutions armed with the training to make a difference in the lives of the children in their charge.