NAIN, St Elizabeth — Public relations consultant Lance Neita wants the Ministry of Education split in two as a way to place “maximum focus” on early childhood education.

Speaking recently at a back-to-school awards ceremony hosted by the Alpart Community Council and JISCO Alpart Jamaica, Neita noted that while successive governments emphasise the importance of early childhood education, not enough is being done.

The result, he said, was that many children were missing out on a solid educational grounding at the earliest stages of their lives and in later years are unable to catch up.

Neita argued that while the Jamaica 2030 plan calls for “all children 0-8 years old [to] have access to adequate early childhood education and development programmes”, the current “piecemeal” approach made such a goal unattainable.

His proposal is to “separate the Ministry of Education into two. One Ministry for Junior or Basic Education to accommodate early childhood and primary, the other for a Ministry of Senior Education to continue to lead secondary and tertiary and university education”.

The junior ministry “fully equipped with its own staff and resources [would be required]to prepare and to bring our children up to a stage where they can be inducted into the secondary level stream as fully literate students”, Neita said.

He pointed to “shocking” statistics showing that “fewer than one out of three children entering grade one (at primary school) are ready for the primary level”.

Yet, he said, research had proven that “the earliest years of a child’s life are a critical period for cognitive, social and emotional development”.

“Early childhood and primary school sector should have its own minister, its own programme, its own education officers, its own buildings, its own Cabinet status, and its own responsibility to the nation,” Neita said.

Anticipating criticism that creating two ministries of education would make governance structures larger, more cumbersome and expensive, Neita suggested other ministries could be dropped to make way.

“Another ministry you ask? Yes, we can easily drop one or two, or if you think about it drop three in exchange for this important one,” said Neita who worked for many years as public relations manager at Alpart as well as a consultant in the wider bauxite industry .

At the back-to-school awards ceremony, 1,219 students (only a fraction of whom could be accommodated at the function) benefited from grants and scholarships at a cost of $7.3 million, organisers said.

This was the first such function since bauxite mining and alumina company Alpart reopened in June under new owners, Chinese metal giant Jiquan Iron and Steel (JISCO), after being closed since 2009.

However, the education programme is in its eighth year and representatives of the Alpart community council and JISCO Alpart said that over the period more than 6,300 students have benefited from grants totalling $28.4million.