Over 150 educators benefit in early childhood development workshop
DPI, Guyana, Friday, August 4, 2017
Over 150 teachers and District Education Officers (DEOs) from across the nation have benefitted from a two-day symposium in early childhood development.
The collaborative effort between the Ministry of Education and the Guyana-Jamaica Friendship Association was held at the Umana Yana in Georgetown. The administration has been working tirelessly to restructure the educational landscape of Guyana, training of educators is a major part of that drive.
Learning aids on display at the event.
The five facilitators were educators from New York City with Caribbean heritage; Dr. Evelyn Castro, Dr. Norma Ellis-Wright, Dr. Parthener Pinder,Dr. Gloria Thompson and Dr. Claudia Williams.
In an exclusive interview with the Department of Public Information (DPI) President, Guyana-Jamaica Friendship Association (GJFA) Dr. Frank Denbow explained that there will be a working document, which will be used as a template to ensure that lessons learnt at the workshop are disseminated among other educators in Guyana. Dr. Denbow said, “I hope it is the first of many (workshops)”.
Event Coordinator Dr. Gloria Thompson noted “Education is for all”, while explaining the decision to begin training from the bottom, “You have to have a base and once your base is good – you train your teachers, you train your parents,” in the long-run the outcome is much better.
The two-day event included a symposium and workshop where educators were enlightened on science, technology, engineering, and math(STEAM) for early childhood Classrooms; Promoting Young Children’s Language Development, Benefits of Movement and Games for Early Learners; Separation and Anxiety in Young Children and Supporting Active Play in the Early Years.
Back in 2015 Guyana’s Early Childhood Development Project was launched with a grant from the World Bank, totaling US$1.7M; it was aimed at improving emergent literacy and numeracy outcomes for children at the nursery level and primary Grade One in hinterland regions and targeted remote riverine areas.
This symposium and workshop is the first with the nonprofit organization, Guyana-Jamaica Friendship Association (New York) INC which focuses on bettering health and education in the Caribbean.
The Association has also been working with the Mashabo Primary School over the past year. They have donated microscopes and books.
Teachers, District Education Officers (DEOs) attending the workshop at Umana Yana.
President of the Guyana-Jamaica Friendship Association Dr. Frank Denbow.