May Pen, Clarendon — Eighty early childhood teachers from Clarendon and Manchester were recently certified having completed training in the basic fundamentals of literacy and numeracy under the Jamalco Advancing Childhood Education Programme (ACEP).

A news release from bauxite/alumina company Jamalco said the teachers were presented with their certificates during a graduation ceremony at the Wembley Centre of Excellence in Hayes, Clarendon.

Guest Speaker, President of the Mico University College Dr Asburn Pinnock lauded Jamalco, the United Way of Jamaica, Mico University College and Early Childhood Commission (ECC) for aligning their objectives with the country’s national goals. Pinnock also urged the graduates to remain focused on shaping the leaders of tomorrow.

“Graduates, this is an investment. I urge you not to see this as a rest stop, instead, continue to invest in lifelong learning,” said Pinnock. He also charged the graduates to take pride in their newly acquired skills and to pass on the knowledge to whom they have been given charge.

Chief Executive Officer of Jamalco, Antonio Melo, said there was no doubt Jamalco has made a wise investment. “Any investment in early childhood education is an investment in the society of the future,” he said. The CEO commended the stakeholders for the role they each played to make the programme the success it is.

In her overview, Corporate Services Manager DonnaMarie Brooks-Gordon explained that Jamalco has invested, some $7.5 million in the ACEP programme annually and although the programme was designed to last for only two years, there was an overwhelming demand based on its success. “The calls continue to come in and I am extremely happy to report that we have secured funding to train a fourth cohort and the ECC and Mico are now in the process of recruiting teachers to commence training soon,” she said.

Gordon, while congratulating the graduates, encouraged them to share what they have learnt and to also inspire and challenge children to learn. “I challenge the 80 of you as well as the other 153 teachers and 175 parents who have benefited from ACEP to spread the knowledge so that we can fulfil our objective of having 100% literacy and numeracy at the end of the project. I urge you to crave knowledge and continue to improve on what this ACEP programme taught you,” she said.

In her report of the ACEP Curriculum, Project Director at the Mico University, Sharon Heslop-Brown revealed that “some practitioners lack the knowledge of how children develop and learn and this affects the quality in the decisions they make in their endeavours to influence children’s development”.

Heslop-Brown said that it was in light of this that the Mico University developed the programme called the Fundamentals of Childhood Education to meet the needs of teachers in Clarendon and Manchester. “To ensure the highest quality programme and delivery, systematic review takes place by the Mico Technical Team which reviews the children’s performance and the practitioners’ application of the lessons learned …,” she said.

The ACEP programme was implemented in collaboration with the United Way of Jamaica, Early Childhood Commission and Mico University College to promote significant improvements in the academic performance of students in targeted Early Childhood institutions, through the widespread adoption and application of improved teaching methods. To date, the programme has trained over 200 basic schoolteachers since the programme began in 2013.