Getting to Know Your International Contacts—Part 3

This week, in response to my questions my early childhood contact sent me a copy of a policy document that she thought would be helpful in providing the answers that I needed. Hope you find it as interesting as I did.

Many strategies and services for assisting children to meet these goals already exist in the current programmes of the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Human and Social Services and the Municipalities (see section 2.2). In addition, there is an increasing number of service providers in the private sector and in community based initiatives. However, to better ensure that the enabling environment for the achievement of this quality of life is accessible to all the nation’s children, it is essential that a coordinated, collaborative approach be taken to extend access to children who do not currently participate in services, or who do not participate regularly, and ensure the provision of the best quality and most culturally appropriate ECD services for children in every region in Guyana.


Guyana is striving to provide an adequate early childhood experience for every child which will be dependent on the child being exposed to healthy and safe environments with warm, caring caregivers such as parents, grandparents, family members and early childhood workers; persons who the child trusts and who provide opportunities for ongoing stimulation and holistic development. There is no preferred setting where such environments have to be created and they can be effectively developed in a variety of settings including the home, pre and post natal clinics, formal day care centres and nursery schools and community-based early childhood groups. What is important is that the persons in these settings have the necessary knowledge, skills, attitudes and materials to engage the children in healthy, safe and developmentally appropriate activities.


In Guyana, there is no legislative provision for day care and community based services at this time; however, an amendment to the Education Act to include these services under the same regulations as nursery education would be a feasible and straightforward option.
The Ministry of Human Services and Social Security has been successful in ensuring the passing of the a The Child Care and Protection Act 2010 which gives directions among others to the provision and maintenance of child care centres to the recommendations of laws relating to children’s welfare. These child care centres referred to are specific to children in institutions such as orphanages. Minimum operational standards are in place for these institutions. The Act does not give guidance to child care facilities for ECD stimulation. Such as day cares, play groups, excreta.

 Current Status
The current situation with early childhood programming presents considerable challenges for access by low income families, families in the hinterland and riverine communities. Children in the large towns and cities have greater access to services, but also face the challenge of cost, quality and equity in the services being delivered.


 Access.
, there were 174,217 children in the population between zero and eight years of age. Of this number, 70,742 were children in the zero to three years nine months cohort. A combined strategy of support to small village communities by health practitioners and support to early stimulation and parenting in the clinics provides services to children under the age of three years nine months. More than 300 children are enrolled in the five municipal day care centres. In terms of access, it is not known exactly how many of the zero to three years nine months cohort participates in early childhood programming in community based and private sector day care services, and is estimated to be less that 1% of the eligible children in this age cohort. This low level of participation is believed to be influenced in part by the requirement to pay a level of fees at the services, presenting a considerable challenge for low income families as well as the lack of knowledge of the importance of ECD. There are disparities across the country indicating much lower levels of access in riverain and hinterland areas where the additional difficulty presented by geography makes it impracticable to provide group day care services. For parents in these areas, it is more feasible to take children along with them to their farms. Given the importance of supporting the development of children zero to three years of age, it is clearly important to extend access to services of quality.
Universal, free access to nursery education is provided potentially to 90% of the population. In 2009, there were 40,798 children between the ages of three years nine months and five years nine months. Of these 25, 538 (63%) were reported as enrolled in nursery education2. The reason for the disparity between potential access of 90% and actual access by 62% is not known; however, access is difficult in some hinterland and riverain communities, where homes are widely dispersed, distances are great, or access by kayak or boat is limited due to the age of the children and their level of competence at swimming. Access is further constrained in some remote or indigenous communities by the absence of teacher qualified persons living there, or being prepared to make a commitment to staying there once recruited. However, by 2013 all children within this age group will have access to nursery education3.
From nursery education, children transition into primary education at five years nine months, where although there is universal, free access for 100% of the population, the rates of participation vary in some regions for reasons believed to be similar to those in nursery education. Of the 36,637 children 5 years nine months to seven years nine months in the population in 2009, 29,940 were reported as enrolled in Grades 1 and 2 (82%)4.
There is a need to ensure that the population actively engages in the available nursery education and primary education opportunities, and it is important to accelerate public education efforts to ensure that the benefits of education are widely understood and appreciated.

Quality
There is wide variation in the quality of early childhood services offered to children under the age of three years nine months. Services other than municipal day care services are dependent 6
on fee income from parents, and a pattern of higher quality tends to follow those services in which higher fee income can be sustained from parents in middle and high income groups.
One of the factors in determining quality in early childhood services is the education, training and qualification level of the early childhood practitioner – mothers, nurses, community health workers day care and play school practitioners and siblings . In fact, research has shown that the most important ingredient in good quality development experiences for children is the adult who is caring for them or helping them learn. It is of concern that in general, the level of training and qualification of staff in privately operated centres serving low income families is lower than that in centres serving higher income levels. It is also a challenge attracting the higher qualified staff to work and live in the remoter areas of Guyana, in health or in education positions.
The range of training and qualifications required in the early childhood workforce includes techniques and skills for supporting nutrition, screening, therapeutic services and early stimulation in the health services; nutrition, child development and child care practices in child care and day care centres; and child development, early learning and child centred pedagogies in the education services. Child care workers are not required to have completed secondary education; however, since 2010, they are now able to access certificate training in early childhood development at the University of Guyana. In order to access early childhood teacher training, applicants need 5 subjects Caribbean Certificate in Secondary Education, Grades 1, 2 or 3, of which two subjects must be English and Mathematics. Progression from the teacher’s qualification to Bachelors and Masters Degree for both nursery and primary teachers is possible through programmes offered at the University of Guyana . Teachers at nursery and primary levels are remunerated on the same salary scale, and share the same opportunities for further study and career progression. Therefore, the opportunities exist to access training and qualifications needed for the care and education of children in early childhood. However, at this time only 80 % of health workers are qualified in supporting nutrition, screening, therapeutic services and early stimulation, 90% are qualified in child care; 988 or 56% of classroom teachers are qualified in nursery education and 2360 or 59% are qualified at the primary education level.


Coordination
Responsibility for management and coordination of the sector also needs to be addressed. The current arrangement has four agencies of government with responsibilities under legislation for the key services and supports within the sector as a whole. The scope of authority and responsibility of each one needs to be set out in a coordinated mechanism to ensure coherence in the Government’s efforts to improve access and quality in the sector.
Sustained improvements in the early childhood experience of the children in Guyana will therefore require a policy framework that approaches the sector in a coordinated fashion; that addresses their ability to access early childhood services; and provides for the quality of the services delivered in the programmes to be of a standard that will be beneficial to the children participating in the programmes.


Increase access to early identification/intervention services, and early stimulation and early education services for all children from zero to eight years of age.
This strategy seeks to improve overall access to early childhood services for the zero to eight cohort from the current level of participation to 100% participation in nursery and primary education, and 40% participation in services for children zero to three years old by the end of 2015. This will require the mobilization of the population to ensure that their children participate in both health and education services. In addition it will require that community based provision for child care for children zero to three years nine months be accessible and affordable for the populations that need it most and that children who require intervention services will be able to access early childhood stimulation services, including parenting education, delivered through the health clinics.
The actions that will be undertaken to implement this strategy are premised on the principle that private sector operators will continue to play a lead role in the provision of services to the sector, particularly in the day care services offered in urban areas, but that the government will intervene to ensure that the most vulnerable in the population also have the ability to access early childhood services, particularly through support to child development by health clinics in the riverine and interior areas.

To improve the quality of service offered the Ministries of Health and Education together will work together in extending the existing nursery education curriculum into a harmonized learning strategy for supporting children’s learning from zero to five years nine months in day care, community based services and nursery education.
Provide in service training and professional development for the early childhood workforce in community based and day care services. The Ministry of Education and the Municipalities will support the training of staff in the use of the learning strategy for children below the age of three years nine months and for teachers engaged in supporting the transition of children into nursery education and primary school. This will include the lessons learned from successful innovations such as the Shared Reading and Language Experience and Health and Family Life Education.

Coordinate support for the upgrading of physical facilities and for sourcing materials and equipment for teaching and learning in early childhood services. Lead by the Ministry of Health through the ECD national Steering Committee, The Ministry of Education, Municipalities and Local Governments will establish a partnership with the private sector and community operators of services to assist them to upgrade facilities and to make the required improvements. This partnership will include assistance with preparing improvement plans and approaching private sector sources for funding.

 Strengthen and coordinate support and monitoring of the quality of the early childhood learning environments. The Ministry of Education together with the Municipalities and the Local Governments will establish a system of coordinated support and monitoring of early childhood services in community based and day care services through the designation of field officers with monitoring and support functions.

Design and implement programmes that will enable the participation of children with Special Needs in early childhood development services, Currently this is limited to non existent.