Childhood Education History

Overview/Introduction

Early childhood education in the Caribbean has come a long way from its humble roots, not only in the Caribbean region but the world over as well. Early childhood education in the past was viewed as not a necessary part of childhood, for example in the 16 hundreds children were viewed as little people so they were put to work at an early stage, and it is only in the 17 century when a man named John Locke introduced his theory that included the opinion that children were a blank slate waiting to be written upon, (Elkind,), that this belief changed, the following years saw an ushering in of more of this change, as the philosophical foundations of early childhood education were lay down by the likes of Jean Jacques Rousseau,

The Montessori program that as developed by Maria Montessori’s (1870-1952) this program was also widely adopted, this was the beginning of early childhood education being seen as an important step in education (Elkind)

Early childhood education in the Trinidad and Tobago is taking new steps every day; this is in line with the government goal of achieving universal education, as such

The purpose of this presentation is not to only report the strides early childhood care and education has made in Trinidad and Tobago, but also the future plans as well.

History/The Early Beginnings

The earliest record of an early childhood education program in the Caribbean region is St. Kitts-Nevis (Charles & Williams, 2006), Barbados followed with Trinidad and Tobago following years after in 1934, and Trinidad and Tobago as said to be the first country to officially open an early childhood care and education center, but as early childhood education was in its early beginnings and the education was being provided by the untrained in private settings, most of which were in substandard conditions, as there was not a system in place to impose

The government is also proposing an act that would make early childhood care and education which is considered pre- education to become a requirement (Ministry of education strategic plan 2011-2015). New centres are being built and existing ones are being upgraded. Another step taken by the government as the implementation of the National Early Childhood Care and Education Curriculum Guide, this has been developed for the use at the pre-primary level. (National Early Childhood care and Education Curriculum Guide).The purpose of this curriculum is to ensure that each child, their parents and their communities are being provided with the highest quality of education, as it is developmentally appropriate for the child’s physical, social, cognitive emotional development. The ministry also proposed new regulations and standards in the operating of the centres; this was done with technical and financial help from the Caribbean based UNICEF Office in Barbados, (Proposed Standards for Regulating Early Childhood Services 2005). There was also the setting up of a workshop, a Ms. Sian Williams a trained Early Childhood Specialist from the Caribbean Child Development Centre (CCDC) U.W.I. was the consultant. The outcome of this workshop was a first draft, following the pattern used by St