He mentioned that the workshop was supposed to include all teachers from the south west part of the island up to the further southern part of the island, however out of the 19 teachers, only 10 showed up.

“Others who live far, were unable to make it because of the bad weather we have been facing, hopefully they’ll be able to join us in the upcoming days,” he said.

He added that despite the fact that some teachers did not show up, the outcome of the workshop so far is good.

Mrs. Roslyn Charlie, an old kindergarten school teacher who is also assisting Mr. Joseph in the workshop, has reported that on the first day of the workshop, each teacher was supposed to weave 21 baskets from coconut leaves to store the toys that will be made in the coming days inside, and so far, the teachers have woven nearly 21 baskets each.

The ECCE officer explained that the workshop had been conducted a few years back from 2000 up to 2010 by different teachers, and it has shown that students of that period have achieved good academic results, compared to the results of the students of 2011 up until very recently, which is why they have decided to do the workshop again.

Mrs. Charlie, who has been conducting the workshop in the early 2000’s explained that the Toy making workshop is an initiative that was started in 2000 by the Ministry of Education and Training, under the Early Childhood Care Education (ECCE) policy program and was conducted by the Pre-school coordinator of PENAMA Province during that time.

“The purpose of the workshop is to mainly develop the Language skills of the children, develop their brain and enhance their knowledge using natural resources,” she added

According to the ECCE policy, the Toy making workshop is an initiative “which aims to create a positive play-based environment that nurtures spiritual values and cultural beliefs and promotes good behaviours and values among the students, especially in kindergarten”.

Noelyn Matan who is one of the kindergarten teachers, told the Daily Post that it is her first time to attend such workshop, and she believes that it is a very good workshop that will greatly help not only the kids, but the teachers as well in teaching the students.

Matan stated that a lot of kindergarten schools in the island do not have enough toys for the kids to play with, and most of the few that they have are ones that have been bought from shops.

She said that with attending the workshop, the teachers will now know how to create different toys for their students using just natural resources or local materials.

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SOURCE: VANUATU DAILY POST