Minister for Education, Heritage and Arts, Premila Kumar, acknowledged the foresight of the Kings Kids Learning Centre co-directors in Savusavu for incorporating electronic learning resources in their new pre-school.

Ms Kumar launched the learning centre on Thursday, 4th August, believing that the input of electronic tablets would boost the children’s learning capacity massively at the centre.

Couple Atish and Maureen Kumar were delighted to have developed the centre despite the drawbacks.

Minister for Education, Heritage and Arts, Premila Kumar, during the launching of the Kings Kids Learning Centre in Savusavu on August 4, 2022

Mr Kumar said the idea to incorporate e-learning tools would blend in with the current high rate of usage of these tools by the younger generation.

Ms Kumar appreciated the husband-and-wife partnership for introducing e-learning resources to students at a young age.

“Not many schools have embarked in this area and not many ECE centres are using this technology to teach the children, so this centre provides the perfect role model for a change in teaching methodology,” she said.

She said the e-learning services introduced by the Kings Kids Centre would be inclusive of both the international and local curriculum.

This helps to maintain the child’s interest in sourcing information internationally, but, at the same time retain the same interest in their local environment as well.

Ms Kumar said the development of private learning centres in the country provided parent’s the choice to decide on their child’s preschool education, and it helped the ministry in building capacity in the private and Government centres available.

The minister congratulated the couple for developing the learning centre, which showed their confidence in the country’s economy.

“It is definitely a leap of faith for the dual as uncertainties surrounding the post-COVID-19 period had affected many businesses, however, the couple overcame all obstacles to open their learning centre,” she said.

More than 16000 early childhood students (ECE) attend both Government and private learning centres nationwide. The ministry allocated $2.9 million to support early childhood education.

Ms Kumar said ECE was an important stage of a child’s life and the first step towards their school life because it taught children the basic manners of conduct, behavior and understanding.

However, she reiterated that parents still held the responsibility to impart the necessary social skills to operate in a school environment.

“These centres are building blocks for any developing child and the skills they attain here are used in their future academic learnings.”

Ms Kumar is calling on parents not to kill the curiosity of their children when they asked questions or needed an explanation on a certain subject.

“Disciplining children is important, but, when your child asks for clarification or further elaboration on certain topics, parents must feel relaxed and ready to assist them as their brain is still developing,” she said.

“Parents must be ready to be part of their journey, and this requires constant patient and relationship bonding with the child.”

Ms Kumar stressed the need for more high school students to enroll in their ECE programmes at the university level because there were a limited number of trained ECE teachers.

“That is the reason why the Tertiary Education and Loans Scheme (TELS) scholarship provided an ideal job pathway for aspiring teachers,” she said.

Review underway at ECE sectors

A review of the entire ECE subsector is underway, with emphasizes placed on standards, policies, programmes and curriculum.

“They have been several discussions around the country with ECE teachers, ECE directors and United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) which regularly informs us to review and revise our ECE subsector,” the minister said.

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