A consultation workshop on the draft of the national early childhood education policy framework and action plan for 2007-2009, was held at the community youth programme center (CYP) today.
Bernadine Ha'amori, Chief Education Officer for early childhood education, said that the workshop is held to ensure that sufficient consultation takes place between stakeholders, particularly those in the government, and those tasked with drafting the policy."This is in fact the second draft and it is very important since it gives the government a good insight into the policy of Early Childhood Education, the government still does not know the direction Early Childhood Education is taking, so it is important that stakeholders give their view about the policy," says Mrs. Ha'amori.
Mrs. Ha'amori also stated that at the moment, many of the stakeholders consulted are beginning to see the importance of having a government policy on early childhood "so it is slowly coming up."
Also speaking with Solomon Times, the Permanent Secretary for the Ministry of Education and Human Resources, Mr. Barnabas Anga, said that the consultation is a process.
"Consultants often need to do ground work so that's what this is all about, we hope that the final phase of the early childhood education policy will reflect the wide consultation that is currently taking place," said Anga.
"Once a policy is in place the government will be more obliged to provide budgetary support, which means it is more targeted towards a specific group and that is early childhood."