Shaping hopes of Sri Lanka’s future
Sunday last was special for the Kiula village where we live. It was
the year-end concert of the village pre-school. Located at the temple
grounds, the pre-school hall was decorated like it was carnival time. It
indeed was.
The little ones were dressed for the various performances. Fifty
little butterflies, flowers, stars, sun and moon, monkeys, rabbits,
Veddahs, Kandyan dancers, drummers and osari clad little ladies, they
were. Dressed in varied colours and costumes, they were eagerly awaiting
their turn to make merry on the little stage. Bundles of pure innocence
and joy they made.
No show-biz
Parents, mostly mothers with rest of their children around them, were
all there. Having prepared them for the performances; elaborate dresses
and in-situ makeup and even little sprinklings of shinny gold and silver
dust to make them glitter a bit more, they were on the edges of their
bench-seats till the concert began.
I have been to many concerts before and seen the best of the best
perform. But here, last Sunday morning the atmosphere, ambience and the
vibes were different. Without pretences, big sponsor’s messages and the
usual show-biz glitter, this was special and elegant. They danced, sang,
jumped up and down, fell, got-up and made merry. It was not only a
concert I saw, but a culmination of joy, fun, hope and aspirations of
our future.
I am sure that there are many similar events held all around our land
at this time of year, where our children in their pre-school formative
years come together and there is similar joy and hope of a better future
generated.
Moulders of future
I also saw through the concert, a window of opportunity to reflect on
an aspect which we as adults, seem not to focus on with adequate
seriousness. It is the movement of pre-school education and the
excellent work done by another group of true heroes of our land. Not
often heard or thought about, they are our pre-school teachers and
administrators of early childhood development work programs. They are
indeed the silent, yet effective moulders of Sri Lanka’s hopes of our
future.
I must confess that I do not have any specialised knowledge or skills
in this area of education and must also confess that I myself am guilty,
not having done enough by my own children, in their early formative
years.
Now that one of my children has acquired for herself a postgraduate
qualification in early childhood behavioural analysis and is a
specialist Autism practitioner, she herself had taught me a few lessons
on the special significance of this sphere of activity. In making up for
lost time and effort, I began to understand why the pre-school or the
early childhood years are cited as the most important years of a child’s
development.
As was shared with us by specialist Shiromi Masakorala, at a recent
interaction held with mothers of the village pre-school, most of what
makes a wholesome adult would occur, during that person’s early
childhood years.
She explained to mothers how beginning from the period of pregnancy
over to formal schooling, the to-be born, the new-born and in early
childhood, love, affection and kindness among parents and their
collective projection of that caring to the child, supports the child’s
well-being and effective growth.
She also emphasised the need to facilitate adequate periods and types
of play for children to help form their brain-body coordination. Proper
nutrition, huge doses of loving care, a sound home environment,
independent and team game-play, were the key ingredients she prescribed,
to mothers in attendance.
Play-skills
A significant observation made on the day was that only one father
attended the session to which both parents were invited. There were
around 60 mothers in attendance. The need for fathers also to become
partners of the process of their children’s early childhood development
was highlighted, with a special mention of alcoholic and other substance
abuse by parents, as a significant negative contributory factor.
They were briefed on the popular myth held by many parents that their
children should be taught to read, count and write at pre-school. It was
said that some parents even complained that the pre-school teachers of
their children were not adequately qualified for they do not teach them
these skills.
It was emphasised that facilitation of free play was the most
important learning need and aid at this stage of a child’s development
and that parents should do their utmost to allow the child to develop
various play-skills instead of yearning for formal learning skills that
must be in later schooling.
Valuable lessons
Watching the children at the concert perform, I realised that what we
were witnessing, was the result of the marvels of work done by the two
pre-school teachers.
Popularly known as Loku-Teacher (Deepani) and Podi-Teacher (Anoja),
they had steered 50 children of diverse home backgrounds, interests,
levels of imagination, access to nutrition and stages of physical growth
to be able to grow to their potential.
At this school there is also a down-syndrome child who is
accommodated in the regular program. Much to the credit of the teachers
and the mother of the child, it is not only the child who had benefited
from the ‘learning’, but also all other children in the program.
It was evident from the different acts they performed together, the
remarkable level of understanding they had developed working with each
other. I observed that in some instances it even surpassed expectations
we would have of rational adult behaviour in dealing with persons with
special needs. The children were indeed teaching us valuable lessons on
group and teamwork.
With a whole generation of our children having grown amidst an
insecure and terror ridden environment, these little children will be
our hope of the new generation we would want to see emerge, as true
beneficiaries of a fresh era of Sri Lanka’s developmental landscape.
True beneficiaries
Though, simple and basic it may seem, the attention we as a nation
pay on the development of our children in the South, North, East, West
and the Centre in their formative years, will be as important a
parameter as the roads, the bridges, the harbours, airports, energy and
other infrastructure schemes.
The success of that effort will be dependent on our having so many
more persons the likes of Loku-teacher and Podi-teacher and the
effective implementation of programs such as Mathata-thita (Stop alcohol
abuse), Allasata-thita (Stop Bribery and corruption) and
Avidyavata-thita (End Ignorance).
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