Liliana Cardona Marín
Getting to the school stage is more terrible for the parents than for the children themselves, leaving the little one for the first time before the gate of a large institution, when they can’t even bear the weight of the backpack, makes anyone watery. . Currently, some private and public schools in Pereira offer the modality of little wise men, which includes education before the transition grade.
From Bogotá, Ana María Peñuela, the director of Early Childhood of the Ministry of National Education, came to the city to socialize with the teachers of Cartago, Armenia, Pereira and Manizales the idea that the national government will implement in a short time, and is that the pre-kindergarten and kindergarten grades are part of formal education.
The director expressed that “We have decided from the Ministry to hold nine regional meetings in which all the certified education secretariats are summoned, with the purpose of working in the territories, recognizing their differences and the course of action for the progressive universalization of education. initial on each.
The socialization of this governmental bet among the teachers of the different cities was the construction of a boat. Every time a musical theme was played, they had to visit the table of other teachers with the proposal of how they would attend to early childhood in their secretariat.Yesterday’s meeting announced the government’s commitment to early childhood education in its second cycle (3, 4 and 5 years of age), with which they seek to gradually increase coverage of the baseline that is in 1,900,000 to 2,700,000 students, to ensure that at the end of four years of age, pre-kindergarten, kindergarten and transition children are part of the educational system.
“This exercise will initially go very, very hand in hand with the Colombian Family Welfare Institute so that later they begin to increase their coverage in children of 0, 1 and 2 years of age, which is the first cycle of early childhood. The Law says that the transition is now universal and if this coverage is completed above 80%, there is an endorsement to open places in kindergarten and pre-kindergarten.
The Childhood and Adolescence Code had warned that this universal right could not be postponed due to the importance it has in structuring the complete educational trajectory of all people.
Is there a danger of children getting tired?
One concern of the parents is how the little ones are going to assimilate the system, to which Mrs. Peñuela responded: “When one looks at the data at the national level, for example the Quality of Life survey, in the last one that was carried out says that 60% of the youngest children are at home at the will of their parents, but necessarily the quality interactions in what they do with their contemporaries structure very well the brain wiring that will serve for a lifetime” .
In this sense, the director also spoke of the importance of methodologies and pedagogy in the different establishments, because being smaller, more activities are carried out oriented towards art, games, literature, exploration of the environment and precisely the transition to primary school will be natural, less rigid. “It is possible that they do not get tired, because studying really becomes a game and an enjoyment of learning and development,” concluded Ana María Peñuela, director of Early Childhood.