Many parents in Region Two were engaged by the Ministry of Education’s Nursery Unit this year to assist them in finding ways to stimulate learning in young children at home.
Marisa Brandon, the Nursery officer at the National Centre for Resource Development (NCERD), was a guest on the ministry’s Spotlight Programme on Wednesday when she disclosed that the nursery unit has held several parental sensitisation sessions with parents.
These sessions help parents understand ways they can help their nursery-level children at home.
She mentioned that the unit is aware that teaching nursery-level children requires strategies to keep them focused because they are easily distracted. For this reason, the unit felt the need to go on the ground and find out how the parents help their children at home and how teachers deliver the topics in the classrooms.
Through these meetings, the Ministry learned about the challenges faced by parents and advised them how to creatively teach their children using materials that can be found in their homes.
“We met with parents throughout Region Two from Charity to Supernaam. We were able to meet with one [parent] from each school to work with them and give them ideas of how to use home based materials to be able to develop the child, especially the literacy and numeracy skills,” Brandon said.
By creating a pathway for parents to be actively involved in the educational development of their children, students in nursery schools will be able to follow the national curriculum both at home and in school so they will better understand topics taught in school.
Further, Brandon said these sessions helped parents to realise that following their children’s learning process and assisting them at home can be fun and easy. But not limited to objects that can be sourced in the house, instead, the unit has also reminded parents that the internet and devices can be utilised to help children with learning.
She further related that next year’s curriculum for the nursery level will see the use of technology.
“We thought it wise to include things like technology now. Where they are getting to be more innovative.
“Our objective is to make sure that the delivery of content is done in a way in keeping with the nursery programme in Guyana [and] it is our task to make sure that the in service programme for teachers is being delivered in a wonderful and exciting way that captivates the early childhood children,” Brandon said.
