The ManicaPost
. . . Another children’s university
Morris Mtisi —
IF you count, one, two, three ECD centres in order of excellence in early childhood development in Mutare excluding Beautiful Beginnings, you are either a visitor in the city or an enemy.
What happens at a pre-school is not measured by flowers around and the colourful buildings.
While the environment does importantly matter, it is what goes on that separates a child-drop-in centre from a nursery school.
Beautiful Beginnings (BB) is not only beautiful. It is a centre of meaningful child growth and emotional, physical, spiritual and intellectual development.
Owned and run by Mrs Judith Kusena, BB exhibited outstanding class in a colourful children’s graduation held at Utopia Lodge recently.
Speaking at the graduation ceremony guest speaker Ms Diana Saurombe said education must not forget to touch a critical element of growth we often tend to forget, character building.
Said the Seventh Day Adventist guest speaker, “An education that fails to build a child’s personality and character is either not adequate or harmful.
I am highly impressed most of these ECD directors are aware that the greatest builder of personalities and character id God. If these teachers build these small houses called our children without God, vanovaka pasina. God must have everything to do with the growth of these children.”
Speaking like a highly knowledgeable child psychologist or more like an education inspector Ms Diana Saurombe relevantly digressed to the topical issue of the national curriculum.
“In compliance with the new curriculum everyone is talking about today, we have also seen how at Beautiful Beginnings child educational development is no longer just about focusing on making children know things, but indeed DOING things with that knowledge. It is the business of ECD centres to set up an environment in which play and work are conducted to achieve desirable mental and moral growth. And nothing can be more effective than catching learners young,” said Ms Saurombe.
In her end-of year report, the owner and director of BB, Mrs Judith Kusena revealed that owing to inadequacy of development funding, BB had partnered with Jewel Juniour School, owned and directed by Mrs Memory Mushonga, a move ECD’s struggling in this cash stranded economy could emulate.
The occasion was mesmerized by the mellifluent singing of Mrs Marcelene Mugaba whose icing on the cake was nothing but awesome.
