Education ministry to intensify outreach for ‘Zero-to-Three’ initiative
THE MINISTRY of Education, Youth and Information will be intensifying its outreach for the ‘Zero-to-Three’ initiative, at an Early Grade Reading Conference to be held in the first month of the next academic year.
The launch of the conference, which is to be held on Thursday, September 27, took place at the Terra Nova All-Suite Hotel in St Andrew on Tuesday.
Minister of Education, Youth and Information Ruel Reid said the conference will assist the Government to strengthen the ‘Zero-to-Three’ initiative and expose early-childhood educators to expert reading practices, which they will, in return, expose to the infants.
He cited a recent World Bank study which says that during the first few years of a child’s life, approximately 700 neural connections are formed every second.
IMPORTANCE OF FIRST 1,000 DAYS
“These connections are dictated by the interplay of a baby’s genetics, environment and experiences, especially the child’s interactions with adults. These are the connections that build brain architecture, the foundation upon which all later learning and behaviour depend,” the study said.
The minister also noted that the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said that the first 1,000 days of life, the time spanning roughly between conception and one’s second birthday, is a unique period of opportunity when the foundations of optimum health, growth and neurodevelopment across the lifespan are established.
“Thus, this time period harbours the greatest opportunity to provide optimal nutrition to ensure normal development and also the time of greatest brain vulnerability to any nutrient deficit,” Reid said.
“If we do not catch our children during these first 1,000 days, many of them will fail.”