To celebrate Black History Month, we would like to celebrate an early childhood pioneer.

Rev. Henry Ward was truly an early childhood pioneer. Henry Ward was born on the 28th of May, 1879 in the district of Golden Grove, St. Ann. He was a Presbyterian Minister, teacher and headmaster. Having attended Clapham Primary School and St. Georges Primary School, in 1899, Rev. Ward further pursued his studies a Mico Teacher’s College where he was named ‘Honours Man of the Year’ in the graduating class of 1900. Rev. Ward held several leadership roles in education, including, headmaster of Ebenezer Primary School in Manchester and later in 1915, Head of the Teacher Training College Department at the Hope Wadell Institute in Calabar, Nigeria where he was also ordained as a Presbyterian Minister. He returned to Jamaica from Nigeria in 1923 and settled in Islington, St. Mary, where he served as pastor of the Presbyterian Church for forty-four (44) years.[1]

As an early childhood pioneer, Rev. Ward is responsible for the establishment of the first basic school in Jamaica in Islington, St. Mary in 1938. The “play centre” as it was then called, was Rev. Ward’s response to the great demand for child care for working mothers. The play centre, the first established community pre-school, catered to the needs of children under six years old and started the basic school movement in Jamaica. In 1941, Rev. Ward and associates presented to the Jamaican Board of Education recommendations for the establishment of “play centres” as part of the Jamaican education system. These recommendations related to teacher qualifications, facility requirements, and administrative procedures. To facilitate children’s development, the centres were to include organized play/stories, actions songs, and foundations for the development reading, writing and numeracy skills. Later, the term “play centre” was dropped and replaced with “basic school” as parents believed the name suggested less emphasis on education and more on play.[2] As envisioned by Rev. Ward and now evident in our approaches in early childhood development, play is a major element for fostering children’s development.

In 2003, the Islington Basic School was selected for a Labour Day project by the government which allocated JA $2 million for its renovation.[3] The Islington Basic School is still in operation today, catering to needs of children at the early childhood level.

Rev. Ward’s contribution to early childhood in Jamaica is truly commendable and his legacy lives on today. There are now over 1600 basic schools in operation in Jamaica with approximately 80,000 children enrolled. As the agency with responsibility for regulating and supporting early childhood institutions in Jamaica, the Early Childhood Commission, has developed standards to guide ECI operations in areas of teacher qualifications, facility requirements and administrative procedures which are a reflection of Rev. Ward’s early recommendations to the Jamaican Board of Education.

To find out more about the 12 Standards for the Operation, Management and Administration of Early Childhood Institutions, you can visit our website at https://ecc.gov.jm/

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[1] https://nlj.gov.jm/biographies/rev-henry-ward-1879-1981/

[2] Jones, J., Brown, A., Brown, J. (2011). Caring and Learning Together: A Case Study of Jamaica

[3] https://jis.gov.jm/islington-basic-school-national-labour-day-project/