Sheron Burns head of the Early Childhood division
Outstanding parents, community members and early childhood practitioners were honoured on the evening of Wednesday, June 14, 2012 at the Cultural Centre in Little Bay for their hard work and dedication. As part of The Early childhood practitioner’s month long celebration, the Head of the Early Childhood division, Dr. Sheron Burns hosted the two-hour long event.
According to Dr. Burns, early childhood practitioners are placed with a very challenging and important task but nevertheless practitioners should strive to do their best for the children in their care. Dr Burns said that due to financial constraints and a few human errors, only a few persons were singled out for applause. “….but, however, the strength of one link in the chain signifies the strength of all of us. The accomplishment of all those who will be awarded tonight is signaling the strength of the persons in the early childhood fraternity including the parents who work closely with us and the community.” 
Dr. Burns also went on to say that in the six years she has been in office, although early childhood is very important, Ministry of Education gets the smallest percentage of the government budget and Early Childhood Education gets the “smallest of the smallest“, so a lot of the education and awareness and training that have been done have been coming, compliments UNICEF Barbados and Eastern Caribbean office.
The new Eastern Caribbean representative for UNICEF Miss Khin-Sandi Lwin was also on hand at this year’s Practitioner Award ceremony; she was singled out on behalf of UNICEF and was award by Dr. Burns for UNICEF invaluable contribution. Miss Lwin was accompanied on her trip to Montserrat by Patrick Knight, Communication Specialist for UNICEF.
Receiving awards during the evening were:
Community Awards: Misses Erslyn Allen; Sharon Allen, Mrs. Yvette Bramble, Nurse Violet Brown and popular radio announcer Basil Chambers.
Outstanding Parents as voted on by the staff of each school: Miss Evelyn Ryan (St. Johns Daycare); Miss Sherise Meade (Look Out Daycare); Ralston Daley (Salem Daycare); Kelvin Raphael White (Salem Nursery); Charles Thompson (Brades Nursery); Mr. and Mrs. Bertron Lee (Look Out Nursery); and Miss Jocelyn Hogan (Aunt Marge Daycare).
Top practitioners as voted by the children and parents: Mrs Mildred French (St. John’s Daycare); Miss Cassandra Bramble (Brades Nursery); Miss Lodereen Cabey (Lookout Daycare); Mrs. Lorraine Semper-Francois (Salem Nursery); Mrs. Cheryl Fergus (Salem Daycare); Mrs Alberta Dyett (Look Out Nursery); and Mrs. Marcia James (Aunt Marge Daycare).
Long service award for twenty (20) to twenty-five (25) years: Lorraine Francois, Jeanette Gerald and Mrs Cheryl Fergus.
Awards were also present to private babysitters/Nannies for providing outstanding care to the children who takes advantage of the services they offer, they were: Mrs. Doris Williams, Mrs Christiana Weeks, Mrs. Ethlyn Lewis and Mrs. Junnette Irish LaRose
The Dr. Burn’s Development Award for the school who in Dr. Burn’s opinion has been exemplifying the kind of Centre Dr. Burn’s believes “would make a child be the kind of leader that we want tomorrow”, this award went to the Look Out Nursery School. They received a Bed.
According to Minister of Education Colin Riley who was on hand to express congratulations, he said that it is evident that the early childhood sector is very skillfully led. “If you are to model the intervention of leadership in this sector and put it to work in everything else that we do, we will become an excellent country.”
In order to ensure that children are not just exposed to care but “quality care”, the Ministry of Education and the University of West Indies Centre here started an Early Childhood and Care certificate course in 2008. About 23 persons started the course that was supposed to last for two years fulltime, or three years part-time. 18 persons completed the course although not all were able to pass the nine modules at UWI. Dr Burns said “it’s a major challenge to be able to attend classes twice a week for three years.”
Minister of Education Hon. Colin Riley
She noted that she has witnessed changes in persons who took advantage of the course and are working at the Early Childhood Centres. Those 23 persons were all awarded participation certificates at the Award Ceremony.
