THE Ministry of Education’s (MOE) National Literacy Department, in collaboration with the Nursery Education Sector, on Friday, launched the Animal Friends Learning App at the Tuschen Nursery School, West Coast Demerara, East Bank Essequibo.

The application is an adaptation of the Animal Friends Timehri Reader Readers Workbook series which is expected to provide a sight word-based programme in an effort to develop the nursery children’s word recognition skills along with the expansion of their vocabulary to achieve early reading success.

Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand, speaking at the launch, said that children now have access to the workbook series on a fun and interactive app that can be used without internet connectivity and is available on the Google Playstore.

“We now have Animal Friends, with Pat and Roy that all of you grew up with, on a device. Pat and Roy are now in an app where your children get to sound that out or move it around…and manipulate it,” she noted.

According to Manickchand, while enrolling in Nursery school is not compulsory in Guyana, the country does have one of the highest enrollment rates in the Commonwealth Caribbean.
The reason for this, she said, is that all parents want their children to “do better than them” and the only way to do this is through education.

According to Manickchand, upon re-entering office in 2020, the ministry was tasked with finding ways to keep children engaged, but because of the level of concentration nursery school children would have, engaging them online was a challenging task.

“Engaging them online was very hard given their level of concentration and the attention they need, so, we had to find various ways of engaging nursery children that were not only online. We did worksheets and packages and we gave every nursery child in this country a developmental kit,” she related.

The education minister believes that nursery is the most important education level.

“You give me a solid nursery education and I could give you a child that passes CSEC (Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate) even if they did not pass NGSA (National Grade Six Assessment), but you got to give me a solid nursery education,” she said.

While investments are being made in the nursery level of education, the minster said that there is not a proportionate rise in readers coming out of nursery schools and “it is a frank conversation we must have.”

“Our aim is to ensure that every child by Grade Four is a reader. You have to be able to comprehend what you read and write back what you read and have an intelligent conversation, in or around the particular topic,” she stated.

Assistant Chief Education Officer (ACEO)- Literacy, Samantha Williams, said this initiative was birthed at the time when the pandemic had disrupted learning at all education levels.

“The Government of Guyana, through the MOE, has strived to implement distance and alternative learning for children even during the pandemic period and while we faced many issues, such as limited internet connectivity, limited ICT (Information and Communications Technology) competencies of teachers, and a lack of learning tools and instruments, today we are able to say that we were able to distribute more than 2100 tablets to hinterland and riverain communities,” she related.

Williams explained that phase one of the electronoic tablet procurement and distribution plan seeks to immediately provide access to Guyanese remote regions first as they were most vulnerable during the pandemic.

The distribution process has benefitted over 130 nursery schools in Regions One (Barima-Waini), Seven (Cuyuni Mazaruni), Eight (Pataro-Siparuni), and Nine (Upper Takatu-Upper Essequibo) and the riverain communities of Regions Three (Essequibo Islands-West Demerara) and 10 (Upper Demerara-Berbice).

“The tablets have been preloaded with over 40 programmes to support learners’ development in linguistic communication, mathematical competence, knowledge and interaction with technology, processing of information, digital competence, artistic and creative thinking, competence for learning to learn and developing their personal initiative,” she explained.
Additionally, the tablet initiative provides the scope for active classroom participation and increased attendance at school.

Available on each electronic tablet is all of the MOE’s nursery resources which include textbooks, worksheets, as well as the new learning app.

Some additional apps are Kids Picture Dictionary, Kids Preschool Puzzles, Hooked on Phonics, an app that helps them to develop their life skills called Digital Well-being, and more.
The apps are appropriate for both year one and year two learners.

There are evaluation activities included in the app which allow teachers to stop and check to see how learners are progressing.

Devendra Persaud, an Assistant Chief Education Officer-Nursery, during his address at the launch, said that the app was completed and handed over to the MOE on July 12, 2022.

Persaud noted that in September of 2023, they will be identifying model schools in each region and Georgetown to be the recipients of multiple learning materials as well as certificates to further enhance child-friendliness.

“Thirty-one additional big books will be written and developed and placed in each nursery classroom to enhance literacy skills,” he added.

The producer of the Animal Friends Learning App, Khaimwattie Seenarine, said that it was her experience as an early childhood educator that inspired her to create the app.

“I would usually try different methods and strategies to foster teaching and learning. However, I would have observed, over the past years, that children have been coming with different interests and energies,” she said.