The Editor, Sir:

Following the publication of my letter titled 'Early Childhood educators said to be under siege', I realise that there are persons who are really in the dark about the operation of some early childhood institutions, especially in rural Jamaica. Please permit me to share some basic facts about the realities on the ground as far as early childhood education is concerned.

I am making reference to govern-ment-recognised basic schools where teachers are required to attend workshops at least once per month. This has been the case for years. These workshops are conducted by education officers, formerly called 'teacher trainers.' The schools in question are zoned and workshops are held in each zone. Instead of asking teachers to meet at various collection points to hand in registration forms, why can't officials go to where the teachers meet and collect the forms since the education officers assigned to these schools are not allowed to collect them?

The requirement for the 'groundsman' to have a food handlers permit, a medical, and police record puts a basic school under pressure because most basic schools that I know do not have an employee called a 'groundsman' Someone takes care of the schoolyard when the need arises. A parent who owes school fee that he cannot pay may volunteer to cut the yard in lieu of paying school fees. The above requirement precludes this.

Unaffordable

All the required documents cost money that neither the school nor this person can afford. This is just one of the problems that one of the requirements presents.

The bottom line is that when we make plans that include people and institutions that we know very lithe about, we end up making un-reasonable demands on these people. The truth is that many public officials do not recognise the inextricable link between what they do in their offices and the lives of people in the society. It seems as if for them, what they do in their offices is an intellectual exercise.

Politicians know the realities on the ground. People put them in power. They must act as a buffer between these uninformed techno-crats and their constituents.

I am, etc.,

WINNIE ANDERSON-BROWN

winab@cwjamaica.com