FMEN Restates Commitment to Montessori Education

Ugo Aliogo

The Foundation for Montessori Education (FMEN) has expressed its desire to drive the growth of Montessori education in Nigeria by ensuring that parents have the requisite knowledge to train and support their children between the ages of zero-three years.

Speaking at the three-day Aid to Life parents’ training sessions in Lagos recently with the theme ‘Effective Parenting’, the Aid to Life Coordinator, Yinka Awobo-Pearse said they teach Montessori education free because they have realised that it is expensive and it is not accessible to all.

She urged parents to use everyday materials to support their children, as it would help them to learn and develop.

Awobo-Pearse explained that the aid to life was put together for FMEN to help parents with children below three years to see how they can support their children naturally at home.

“Children below three need to develop their movement, communication skills, selfdiscipline skills and independent skills. These are the skills that have been identified that if they develop them at that age and they go with those skills, they will become active learners in the classroom. This aid to life programme was based on Montessori philosophy, which stated that children should be encouraged to learn independently because they have a natural ability to learn.

“All parents need to do is to provide the right environment and encourage the child to work. If a child is born into a family, he/she will learn the language and culture of such family. Therefore learning is a great ability for children. If we have the right environment that will encourage the child, the child will develop these skills,” she said.

In her remarks, the Director General, Quality Assurance, Lagos State Ministry of Education, Mrs. Ronke Soyombo said the state government has done a lot in education particularly at primary and secondary levels.

She stressed that in order to get that foundation right, there is need for parents to be carried along in the scheme of things and be well trained on what is expected on how to lay a solid foundation for their children.

“What we have stressed on today is the need for parents to have good values for our children. If children can have good values, they can build academics into it and that is something that parents will be learning and they will also learn how to support their children within the next three days.”