EXCERPTS
Representatives from Samoa have joined more than 30 Ministry and teacher training participants from 12 countries in the Pacific in Fiji this week.
They are there to review the Early Childhood Care and Education (E.C.C.E.) Teacher Competency Framework for the Pacific, draft country and regional roadmaps for strengthening preschool teacher training and related policies to improve the quality of preschool teaching in the region.
“Education is too important for us not to aim for excellence, starting from the beginning,” said Alison Burchell, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Education, Heritage and Arts in Fiji.
“We need to join hands to share challenges and lessons on strengthening teachers, our system’s most valuable resources, and especially at the early childhood level, when the foundations and love for learning are established.”
In the Pacific region, there are significant challenges for young children and their families to access quality preschool education.
Across the region, 70 per cent of 3 to 5 year–old children currently do not have access to preprimary or preschool education.
“What children learn in their earliest years sets the foundation for their future. Improving the quality of, and access to, preschool education is vital for children to develop to their own full potential, and to contribute to their own communities as future adults,” said U.N.I.C.E.F. Representative, Sheldon Yett.