Early childhood educator Wayne Jordan has kept the dream of education in the poorer communities of Port of Spain alive through acts of nature, financial and personal difficulties, and now a pandemic.
In recognition of his efforts, on December 14, the Maharishi Institute of Science and Technology of TT gave Jordan an award for his "selflessness and continued dedication" to the children of Port of Spain.
The 62-year-old is the founder of the All In One Child Development Centre and Each One Teach One Special School in Beetham Gardens, on the outskirts of east PoS.
Jordan explained that Each One caters to children who have never been in the school system as well as those with special needs, while All In One is a preschool. He is the principal of Each One and parent outreach facilitator at All in One.
So, for students who did not attend school regularly or for parents who want to keep up to date with their children’s classes he video-recorded his classes and posted them on his Facebook page.
“I like a little drama when I’m teaching to get the student’s attention. Because children have a short attention span you have to be exciting, be happy, you have to have the children wanting to come to school. And that’s a skill I have apparently.”
As a result, when schools closed in March 2020, the transition to online teaching was easy. He made videos of lessons and created weekly packages as some parents were uncomfortable with or could not do live classes online.
Added to the packages were Early Childhood Care Education (ECCE) activity packs available in a local newspaper.
“Some parents have literacy problems so there were certain things they could not help their children with especially like, standard one and two work. What I did was one-on-one sessions on WhatsApp video for those students.”
If the children needed extra help, when parents visited his home to collect the teaching packages, he would explain the work to them so they could help their children.
He expressed gratitude to the Rotary Club of Central Port of Spain which provided him with the stationery he needed to make the packages including staple guns, photocopy paper, markers, pencils and more.
He added that the club also makes sure each of his students receives age-appropriate toys at Christmas every year. And together with the Digicel Foundation, the organisations have been financing the students at both schools.
For the new school term, Each One has 22 new students out of 56 children – ages three to 16.
And while he may not believe reopening preschools and primary schools in April is the best idea with the large numbers of new covid19 infections and deaths every day, he is willing to work with the Ministry of Education’s guidelines.
[caption id="attachment_932566" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Wayne Jordan reads to Tiwali Jordan, left and Liam Mayhew at the Each One Teach One preschool in Beetham Gardens. - PHOTO BY SUREASH CHOLAI[/caption]
He said as children learn through play, it would be difficult to stop them from mingling s
