FINANCE Minister Winston Jordan has noted the involvement of teenagers in horrendous crimes and believes if structured early childhood development centres could stop this problem, then more should be established throughout Guyana.
“You have teenagers who are involved in vicious crimes; crime is not due to the lack of early childhood education but it appears as though a structural and sustainable approach to the development of children might have been lost along the way,” said Jordan.
He was at the time speaking at the commissioning of an Early Childhood Development Centre at Anna Catherina, West Coast Demerara (WCD) on Saturday.
The construction of the facility and a training progamme for youths were funded by the Basic Needs Trust Fund (BNTF) and the Government. The total cost of the joint project was $36 million.
Aside from being established for persons to leave their children while they go to work, the centre was created to provide comprehensive learning spaces for children from infancy to five years old.
Minister Jordan said the aim of the facility is to provide early childhood development services to persons in Anna Catherina and surrounding communities. It is also geared at providing unemployed youths with the chance to be trained and subsequently employed as early childhood caregivers and educators.
“We are trying to make sure that children are exposed to early education to feed their minds so that they would grow up to be excellent daughters and sons of the soil; to contribute meaningfully to Guyana,” said the minister.
He added that gone are the days when the extended family, community and even the close family would be part of the child’s learning process.
While it is an anecdotal belief that the lack of interaction between the family and youths could be a factor that influences them to turn to crime, the minister believes that if early childhood centres could remedy that problem then more of those facilities will be built around the country.
The facility at Anna Catherina is the fifth of its kind to be established so far.
As mentioned earlier, another component of the project was an early childhood training programme for youths.
Project Manager of BNTF, Dikedemma Utoh said 64 unemployed youths were trained– two males and 62 females.
Eight of the trainees were from Anna Catherina and those trainees were employed to work at the newly established centre.
BNTF has applied to the Public Service Ministry for scholarships for three of the trainees to attend the University of Guyana.
