For The Children's Sake Foundation

Nursery Children at Mustard Seed School

Since FTCSF began visiting Africa, Dr. Nancy Price has received numerous requests to train nursery school teachers. We had always turned down these requests, feeling the need for training was greater in primary schools. However, this summer FTCSF was challenged to reconsider when Nancy was invited by a pastor who had attended our teacher training to visit a local nursery school.

Nancy was surprised to see three and four-year-old children sitting on benches all day long and being taught reading and writing from a blackboard. There were no toys in the classroom and no activities were used for lessons. Nancy knew that a child's first experience of school impacts the way they view learning later and she wanted to find out more about why such a developmentally inappropriate approach was being taken.

After talking with the nursery school teacher, it became apparent that this situation was the result of pressure from parents who believe that this rigid style of teaching is the only way to assure academic achievement. Although the teacher wanted to use more age-appropriate teaching methods with her pre-school students, she felt unable to defy the parents′ misguided directions.

With this information as a catalyst, FTCSF decided to provide an emergency Nursery School training session. Michael Nsamba (see article on St. Joseph′s schools) contacted all the schools within the network we′ve been working and with only two days notice, 26 delegates attended from 11 schools.

FTCSF obtained copies of the Ugandan Nursery School Curriculum and distributed it to all of the delegates. The day was spent in going through the curriculum and proving training on how to use it. None of the teachers had ever seen this valuable resource. Although it is the national curriculum, their schools do not have the resources to purchase it and the government doesn′t provide it. Nancy encouraged the teachers with practical ways to apply the curriculum and a basic understanding of child development. Teachers were bolstered by the assertion that respect for a child′s God-given nature is part of a truly Christian education.

Nancy also met with the school directors and enabled them with a strategy to convince parents that the Ugandan curriculum was age-appropriate. She challenged them to take the pressure off their teachers and allow them to teach the children in appropriate ways.

Although this was only a one day session, all who took part were greatly encouraged and excited about applying what they had learned. One woman who worked with developmentally disabled children at a Kampala hospital left eager to apply the new strategies in that program. Moses, the orphanage director from Come, Let's Dance, was so inspired by the nursery training that he left making plans to start a nursery program at the orphanage.

FTCSF is so grateful that God has opened our eyes to this new area of ministry and we are planning future nursery school training programs.