Assessment of Early Childhood Education

Contact: Julita Peter  

Tuesday, June 05, 2001 - The Ministries of Education, Health and Community Development have joined forces in undertaking an island wide Quality Assessment Survey of all Early Childhood Education Centres. The survey, which is being mounted with technical assistance from the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF), aims to evaluate the learning environment of early childhood centres, in order to determine the extent to which these centres provide effective practices for healthy development of young children.

The survey is also expected to provide policy makers with information on the quality of early childhood centres. Margaret Gustave of the Early Childhood Education Department of the Ministry of Education believes it is important to conduct the survey, particularly since the ministry has been engaged in a process of regularizing the operations of early childhood centres.

The data gathered from the exercise including recommendations and conclusions will serve as a critical tool in providing policy makers with the necessary information in their attempts to address gaps in the provision of quality early childhood education services.

“The survey was not designed to provide an assessment of teachers’ competence,  nor the performance of children, but strictly focuses on the environment in which early childhood learning takes place,”  said Gustave. 

It is hoped that when the results of the survey are disseminated, all stakeholders -practitioners, government as well as non-governmental  agencies - and all those involved  will all work towards the common goal of upgrading the standard of early childhood education.

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