WITH only three per cent of the national education budget allocated to early childhood education, Minister of Education Reverend Ronald Thwaites said a mistake has been made as the country has turned its priorities upside down.

“As a twig is bent so will the branch grow, so will the tree thrive,” Thwaites said, as he reiterated the call for more emphasis to be placed on early childhood education.

Thwaites, who was guest speaker at an awards dinner held at the Holiday Haven, Runaway Bay, St Ann, for past North West, St Ann politicians last Wednesday, said the early childhood stage is most important and equity should be given to that experience.

This, he said, will create a “far more impressive” outcome at the primary and secondary level.

The minister also called on churches to help to uplift early childhood education.

“The church must recapture its interest in education. Every congregation must have a basic school, ” he added.

He further stressed that it was important for the church to also be active in the school’s operation.

“We have to change our priorities and our education system has to be the fulcrum and centre of that being done,” Thwaites argued, even as he called on organisations to adopt a school in order to strengthen the education system.

“Education is so important that there can be no partisan divide about the basic policies,” he said.

The education minister cited nutrition as another important aspect to education in Jamaica and urged farmers to produce more as millions are spent each year to import items to supply the school feeding programme.