Saturday, December 20, 2014

Cradle To Grave: Barbados Postpones U.N.'s Universal Preschool Target to 2018

12/20/2014

SAN JUAN – Barbados’ government has postponed by three years, to 2018, its goal of achieving early childhood education for all.

The delay in achieving this goal is largely due to “economic challenges,” the minister of Education, Science, Technology and Innovation, Ronald Jones, said in a statement.

“In 2000, the world came up with the Education for All initiative, because we recognized that across the world, there were millions of children who were not getting basic or foundational education at the primary level – especially in Asia, Africa and some parts of the Caribbean,” Jones said.

He said Barbados has completed all other the goals outlined by the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s Education for All initiative.

“We are a little way behind, but I have assured UNESCO that by 2018, we will meet 100 percent capacity for our children,” Jones said.

Plans are in motion to build six nursery schools and kindergartens to help achieve this goal, Jones said.

A 2014 UNESCO report, “Teaching and Learning: Achieving Quality Education for All,” found that at least 250 million of the 650 million early-education-age children in the world are not learning the basics of reading and arithmetic.


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