There has been a strong and decisive call on family members, school teachers, the community, churches and government to do everything in their power to provide proper leadership for Anguilla’s children in these challenging times.
The call was the focus of a feature address by Reverend David Christmas, a multi-faceted leader at the Central Baptist Church, a commercial pilot and an engineer with Ericcson at LIME Anguilla. Reverend Christmas spoke on the theme of Early Childhood Education Month: Building A Foundation for Lifelong Learning. His stirring address attracted much support from the Minister of Social Development, Mr. Evans McNiel Rogers, other officials from the Ministry and Department of Education, the Pre-Schools and parents.
Speaking at the opening ceremony of Childhood Education Month 2016 – on Tuesday, March 1, at the Teachers’ Resource Centre – the Reverend Christmas said in part:
“Proverbs 22 verse 6 is a verse that we are very aware of. It says ‘train up a child in the way that he or she should go that when he or she is old, they will not depart from it.’ What’s scary about this verse is that it does not matter whether you train the child for good or for evil. It means that it will stay with them for the rest of their lives. And so, our training must begin on a good footing. The reason I chose the portion of Scripture is that it was wonderful to hear the boys and girls singing about Jesus and of God. But I always wonder what happens when they leave the institutions that talk and sing about God, and we take them down the road where they no longer hear about God, but they hear about ‘push back yer botty’ and ‘wind down’ and all kinds of things – and then we wonder why they are doing what they are doing. Early Childhood is the foundation on which we are going to build for tomorrow. What we teach our children today is going to be the building they are going to look at tomorrow. Children from the age of zero to 5 years, their brain’s capacity is at its peak. They are going to absorb everything we tell them, s
how them and demonstrate to them. They are going to remember it for the rest of their lives. It is important for us to realise that this being true, we must put a solid foundation, a base, i
n place that once they have crossed the five-year mark, we can now build on that foundation and look for good results tomorrow.”
Reverend Christmas went on: “There are three entities that God ordained from the beginning of creation for which a child, at a very early age, can be moulded. The first institution is that of the family. The family is the first line of protection, security, education and spiritual upbringing. It is to provide a nurturing environment in which the child can learn…The second institution that was instituted by God is called government… According to Romans chapter 13, a government is given for our protection. Government is supposed to partner with the family in continuing to provide security for our children to know that th
ey have the freedom to live in the environment in which we send them. They must know there are laws which protect them from people who will hurt them.
“Your third partner is the church. The church is supposed to be there to reinforce what our children are supposed to be taught at home in the family. It is important to understand that God never gave church or government children. He gave them to parents. When the parenting arm fails, then government and the preschool have to pick up the slack…Teachers, there are children coming to your institutions where you are going to have to fill the role of grandma, ma, auntie or somebody who will have to tenderly love them into becoming someone of renown in the future. You have a tremendous responsibility and our prayers constantly go out to you as teachers…”
He reiterated that the family unit “is responsible for building the foundation for a life-long education”.
Minister of Social Development, Mr. McNiel Rogers, who commended Reverend Christmas for his address, emphasised that: “If we are to build a foundation for lifelong learning, as well as for socio-economic wellbeing, we must invest more in early childhood education. It is for this reason that my Ministry, through the Department of Educa
tion, will continue to support the work of early childhood centres.”
The Government Minister continued: “Currently, we are investing significantly in providing both short and long term training opportunities for early childhood teachers. This is an investment we are happy to make because it is absolutely necessary that we play a role in ensuring that teachers are fully equipped to do their jobs to the best of their ability. I am also pleased to say that the financial support provided to teachers is under review because, while we recognise that we can never fully compensate teachers, we also recognise that based on the significance of your work, you deserve more.”
Mr. Rogers added: “I wish to make it clear that my Ministry is extremely grateful for the work that you do in this early childhood sector.
I believe you must have a special gift to harness the energy, curiosity and seemingly intelligence of young children and get them to learn in a fun and engaging way. It is obvious that you love what you do and we are grateful that you have chosen this profession.”
Mrs. Susan Smith, Education Officer, Primary/pre-primary, who chaired the proceedings, also praised the early childhood education teachers and underscored the importance of their work.
Mrs. Juliet Simon, President of the Organisation of Early Childhood Education, was also grateful to the teachers, as well as the Ministry and Department of Education, for their support.
Other persons who participated in the opening ceremony were Pastor Noril Gumbs of the First Baptist Church, who gave the Invocation, and Ms. Itasha Webster, a Kindergarten Teacher at the Vivien Vanterpool Primary School, who delivered the Vote of Thanks.
