Early childhood education in Guyana

Conclusion

The problems of adequate housing for children's programs remain. Many teachers will not catch up with prevailing theories and practice in early childhood education in more technologically advanced countries for a while. Curriculum implementation at classroom level still needs much attention. The budget provided for early education keeps shrinking due to high inflation. Despite the problems, however, the introduction of a national early childhood education program was good for families who could not afford fee-paying schools for their children.

“Going national” at the outset was problematic because of the number of issues that needed attention simultaneously. It however, removed the need for lobbying, which can be a long and arduous process before success is achieved. A national program of early childhood education also enabled nursery teachers to surmount many of the problems associated with their image as mere childminders and the low-liest on the rungs of the education ladder. For children, this program also performed an important socialisation and cognitive-developmental function and it forced parents to take another look at early childhood as a definite learning period in the life of the child.