KINGSTON, Jamaica — During her visit to the Shortwood Teachers’ College on Wednesday, the Duchess of Cambridge, Kate Middleton, spoke about the importance of understanding the impact of early childhood education. 

Expressing her passion for early childhood education, the Duchess said, “[This] is why I’m so passionate about early childhood because we are doing something much more in building up our children. We are nurturing the children and the adults that they will become, the families that they will build and the communities that we are a part of.” 

At the same time she emphasised that teachers play a crucial role in shaping society by “impacting the futures of literally thousands of young people over the course of your careers”.

To that note, Middleton extended her gratitude to the students and faculty of Shortwood Teachers’ College for their commitment to educating Jamaicans for the past 130 years. 

“I truly believe we are on one of the biggest opportunities in generations. And when I see the commitment and enthusiasm here at Shortwood I feel optimistic of what we can accomplish together,” she stated. 

Meanwhile, principal at Shortwood Teachers’ College, Claudette Barrett-March, told reporters that she was delighted to share information on training teachers for early childhood education with the Duchess. 

“She is very interested in early childhood education and in particular how parents are involved in the education of their children at that early age. So, we were very happy to share what we do because we train teachers to do that in Jamaica and even in Britain we have a number of our past students teaching in Britain,” Barrett-March said. 

She also explained that the institution is dedicated to ensuring that both teachers and parents understand the importance of education to the country’s development. 

“I think one of the main thing is how we engage our parents, whether they come into the schools, whether we go out into the communities to meet with them, the college has parenting seminars all the time and they find a way to impact the parents to help them to understand how they can help the children to learn so that when they learn in school, it doesn’t stop at school they are able to reinforce what is done at home, so that is one of the big things that we try to do here in Jamaica,” Barrett-March noted. 

At the same time, student and College President, Ramon Smith, said he was happy to meet the Duke, Prince William because he now knows that he is interested in how the student body is manoeuvring through the pandemic and how they plan to educate not only themselves but the nation. 

The visit of William and Kate forms part of celebrations marking the 70th Anniversary — Platinum Jubilee — of the Coronation of Her Majesty The Queen, which will also see them making stops in Belize and The Bahamas over a one-week period, from March 19 to 26.