Early learning readiness assessment |17 April 2023
Mrs Choppy
87% of preschoolers ready
for crèche Y1 this year
Around 87% of preschoolers met the necessary targets and were ready to start their year one (Y1) in crèche this year (2023), according to an early learning readiness assessment conducted by the Institute for Early Childhood Development (IECD) last year.
This shows an improvement in the readiness of preschoolers for crèche when compared to the result of the assessment for 2021 which was at 83%.
The result of the 2022 assessment was presented by education consultant Egbert Benstrong at a half-day forum by IEDC which was held at the Seychelles Institute for Teacher Education on Saturday morning.
In attendance were the principal secretary for Education Services, Merna Eulentin; the chief executive of IECD, Shirley Choppy; IECD board members; crèche teachers; child care managers; childminders; parents among other guests.
The study, which is done annually, is to provide a standardised and child-friendly early learning experience that helps promote consistent practices across care providers on a common understanding that children prior to entering crèche have varied home background and learning experiences.
It is also to identify children in need of intervention programmes that will help them to continue to excel in their primary education and beyond.
Mr Benstrong, who was in charge of the study, said the increase in the number of preschoolers that are ready to attend crèche year one this year as compared to the number who attended last year is strong evidence of the high level of engagement and involvement of parents in their child’s development and learning which have increased.
He noted that two thirds of children live with both parents, close to 90% live with parents who are employed and about 77% had at least a parent with a post-secondary qualification among other factors such as the high-level training and standardised support given by IECD to child care operators and childminders.
“The children in registered child care centres and home-based childminding are following a well organised and structured programme and this is among good elements that are causing their performance to increase,” said Mr Benstrong.
With regard to performance by gender, Mr Benstrong said as compared to 2021 where both genders were on relatively at par level, the high level in performance by the girls over the boys was dominant in 2020 where 90.3% among them were ready to attend crèche compared to 84% by the boys.
He added that children coming from registered care settings performed better than those coming from unregistered care settings.
He noted that the gap on performance maybe as a result of lack of structured programmes offered by IECD.
The assessment was the fourth to be held since 2019 for children between the ages of 3 and 4 years from registered and unregistered childcare services, including those who were being looked after by family members or relatives in their residential homes before they enroll in crèche or pre-school.
On the whole, the readiness assessment was administered to 1195 but the 20 assessors were able to collect information from 1177 children across the country (499 in registered day care centres, 263 from registered home-based childminding services, 415 from unregistered home-based childminding services) with their parent’s approval.
The socio and physical assessment for children was on four levels; (1)identify body features (2) identify names (3) make his/her needs known, follow age-appropriate instructions, show interest in activities, control himself/herself, recognise pictures according to size (4) sort objects according to size, sort objects according to shapes, sort objects according to colours – blue, red, yellow and green, associate eyes with seeing and associate feet with walking. The assessment for parents was in the form of a questionnaire with three levels with regard to engagement in all aspects of social and education and their engagement with the care operators.
Mrs Choppy said that the institution is very satisfied and encouraged by the results which bears testimony to the hard work done to improve child care.
She noted that the assessment is very important for IECD in terms of finding weakness to better improve, amid the good practices, the quality of child care education and development.
She noted it is now time to take stock of what is being achieved in child care education and development in the country so as to keep the trend going and to spill over into primary education.
She said that childcare providers play a critical role in supporting children’s early learning, which is an integral part of a child’s holistic development and help prepare them for formal early childhood education as it sets the foundation for success in later formal schooling and life.
Currently there are 102 child care centres and 32 childminding services that are registered with IECD. The institution is working to have those unregistered to register to benefit from IECD support.
The forum ended with panel discussion where participants gave their views on the findings through their shared knowledge and experience.
