Claudette Lennox, principal of the Bethlehem Assembly Basic School in Linstead, St. Catherine, points to a chart while teaching a class on Tuesday, February 6. - Photo by Petrina Francis

Petrina Francis, Staff Reporter

For 28 years, Claudette Lennox has been an inspiration through education in lives of the more than 1,000 children who have attended the Bethlehem Assembly Basic School in Linstead, St. Catherine.

She said it was the natural love for children that pulled her to the profession at the level many people believe is the most important of the education system: early childhood.

"I believe that if you start at the early stage and instil certain values and mould children, then when they get to the other levels of the education system, there would not be so much problem as we are seeing now," Ms. Lennox told The Gleaner last week.

In charge of the future

She is certainly a woman in charge. She is in charge of the future of the children at this very tender and impressionable age. She not only sees herself as a teacher to her students, but also a caregiver, a role she takes very seriously.

"We are to them like parents because we have to feed them and take them to the bathroom when they need assistance," the 43-year-old teacher said with a smile.

But like many other professions, there are challenges which come with Ms. Lennox's job.

Repetition is the key to ensuring that children between the ages of three and six understand what they are being taught.

"And you have to watch every move that they make. But that is not a problem because it is like a mother watching over her children," the veteran educator said.

Ms. Lennox believes the Government's initiative to register all early childhood institutions is a good idea. The early childhood regulations, which come under the Early Childhood Act of 2005 and take effect this year, require that all institutions are registered and set new standards for service and quality delivery.

She said this would deter anyone who wants to set up a "patty shop" and call it a basic school.

However, she said that the $3,000 it would cost operators to register their institutions was too much and the other mechanisms that would have to be put in place to ensure that they comply are excessive.

"But all in all we have to accept it if we are going to give our children a solid education," she said.

Her journey

A graduate of the then Ewarton Secondary School, Ms. Lennox left the institution with three (Jamaica School Certificate (JSC) subjects. Early childhood educators are now required to upgrade themselves and she has since earned the National Council on Technical and Vocational Education and Training (NCTVET) level one and two programmes for education.

Ms. Lennox is now furthering her studies, which she believes will benefit the children even more.

And while this committed teacher has been at this institution for nearly three decades, she stressed that it was not the love of money why she has remained, as early childhood educators and teachers in general were not paid enough for the work they do daily.

"No, no no! We are not well paid to do this kind of work at all. I love the children and I love working with them and this is why I am here," she declared.