THE PIONEERS OF EARLY

CHILDHOOD EDUCATION IN
JAMAICA

NAME: HOWEESHA HARRIOTT

SCHOOL: SOUTHEAST COLLEGE
YEAR: 2023
 TABLE OF CONTENTS
PAGES

Acknowlegement
1
Introduction
2
Rev Dudley Grant biography 3-4
Rev Dudley grant Photos
5
Rev Henry Ward biography 6-8
Rev Henry ward photo 9
Rev Majorie (Madge) Saunders biography 10-12
Madge Saunders Photo 13
Bibliography 14
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
First and foremost I want to thank God almighty for giving me the strength and knowledge
to complete this project.
I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my teachers Ms.Henry and Mrs Wright for
giving me the opportunity to do this research by providing invaluable guidance for the
completion of the project. I want to thank my boyfriend who supported and motivated me,
keeping me persistent. His drive towards me succeeding inspires me.
I want to thank my niece who took the time out of her busy CXC schedule to lend me her
laptop to complete this project
I want to express sincere gratitude to my mom who encouraged me to get enrolled in a school
to fulfil my passion of teaching children, I feel accomplished.
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INTRODUCTION
Early Infant Education began in homes where persons would have a short session under trees,
and in their backyards. They were not a set institution to accommodate children. Early
Childhood care began in Jamaica around 1938.
Many persons dedicated to understanding how children grow and develop and to providing
settings that provided both education and care for children in Jamaica.
These game changer are referred to as pioneers of Jamaica’s Early Childhood Education.
These pioneer felt that there should be equal learning opportunities for all children including
those who parents fell in the low-income group. In the early twentieth century many 3-6 year
old children were left unattended at home or in the care of family members while their
parents went out to work on sugar and banana plantations and in factories. At this time, it was
not the policy of the Government of Jamaica to provide education for children below the age
of six and a half years old. Dudley Grant, Rev Henry Ward and Madge Saunders are the
majors of this project This research will inform you of their contributions to Early
Childhood Education. They are the foundations of early childhood and they made it what it is
today the development of ECE was achieved through play centres, organizing and labelling
of charts ; English Language , speech and multiple projects, where early childhood educators,
teen mothers, resource centre officers were able to get trained assist in proper learning and
managing of early childhood education .
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REV DUDLEY GRANT

Dudley Ransford Brandyce Grant was an educationalist who specialized in the

theory of early childhood school development in Jamaica. He is regarded by many
as the ‘Father of Early Childhood Education in Jamaica’. Born in Santa Marta,
Colombia on September 15, 1915 he immigrated to Jamaica with his parents, James
and Annie, at an early age. He attended Maldon Primary School, St. James in his
youth before continuing his education at Mico Teachers’ College in St.
Andrew. Mr. Grant also went on to complete a Master’s of Science at Cornell
University, USA before furthering his learning at great institutions including Oxford
University’s School of Education in England and the Universities of New York and
Columbia in the United States. Career D. R. B Grant was a highly respected and
accomplished tutor and theorist whose career was filled with an extensive list of
achievements and positions of authority at all academic levels.
He began his educational profession as a Primary school teacher, later moving up to
school Principal, before continuing his progression through the teaching ranks as
Senior lecturer, University of the West Indies and Visiting Lecturer at University of
Maryland in the USA. Early Childhood Education After this, Mr. Grant began to
concentrate on his Early Education work. Below are the positions and roles that D.
R. B undertook: Director for the Project for Early Childhood Education (PECE) •
Consultant to the Jamaican Ministry of Education’s Early Childhood Education
Program • Director of University of West Indies/Bernard van Leer Foundation Centre
for Early Childhood Education • Consultant/Advisor on Early Childhood Education in
developing countries • Vice Chairman of Jamaican Government’s Programme for the
Advancement of Childhood Education (PACE).

During the period 1967-1968, while on secondment to the Ministry of Education

Jamaica, he started the first teaching internship programme which has become a
major component of the teacher education programme in Jamaica. D. R. B. Grant
also conceived and implemented the Project for Early Childhood Education (P. E. C.
E. ) which was funded by the van Leer Foundation of Holland. He directed this
project from 1966-1987.
He became a highly respected international authority in the field of early childhood
education and occupied various consulting and advisory roles. In 1972, D. R. B.
Grant was appointed by the Ministry to Education, Jamaica as a member of the
Committee for an In-depth Study for Primary Education. He also played a pivotal role
in the design and organization of the Hope Valley Experimental School. In
recognition of D. R. B.
Grant’s contribution to early childhood education, the University of the West Indies,
Mona has named the Early Childhood Resource Centre in his honor. In addition, the
Dudley Grant Memorial Trust (DGMT) was established through the Bernard van Leer
Foundation in 1989 to commemorate his life and work. D. R. B Grant officially retired
in 1978 but continued his work until his death on August 25, 1988. He was 73 years
old.
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IMPORTANT PROJECTS ESTABLISHED BY D.R.B

 Resource centre Training Unit for training Resource centre officers

 Teenage mother Project

 Summer Bachelor of Education (B. ED.) Early Childhood Programme

 North Coast Project

For many years, he focused on several aspects of Early Childhood Education including
training and increased salaries for basic school teachers and curriculum development for
basic school children. In 1968, he launched the first annual Early Childhood month with a
view to increasing public awareness on the importance of Early Childhood Education.
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PICTURES OF REVEREND DUDLEY GRANT

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Reverend Henry Ward

Rev. Henry Ward (1879 - 1981

Born:1879 :
Died:1981

Early Life
Reverend Henry Ward, Presbyterian Minister, teacher and headmaster is highly regarded as one
of the pioneers of Early Childhood Education in Jamaica. Henry Ward was born on the 28th day
of May, 1879 in the district of Golden Grove, St. Ann. He attended Clapham Primary School and
St. Georges Primary School where he not only passed the Pupil Teachers Examination with
distinction, but also attained the Exhibitioner’s Scholarship in 1899 to pursue studies at Mico
Teacher’s College. At Mico, Ward founded the institution’s debating team, while successfully
pursuing his studies, which resulted in him being the ‘Honours Man of the Year’ for the
graduating class of 1900.
Subsequently, he became the headmaster of Ebenezer Primary School in Manchester where he
served for nine years. During these nine years, Ebenezer was rated by education inspectors as
one of the top elementary schools in Jamaica. One year, it obtained all the top spots in the Pupil
Teachers’ Examination. As a consequence, Ward received offers for a number of posts which he
declined, instead opting to study at Woodlands Theological College in South Manchester. During
his first year at Woodlands he was also president of the Jamaica Union of Teachers after being
nominated as president elect the previous year.
In 1915, Ward was ordained as a Presbyterian Minister and offered a position as Head of the
Teacher Training College Department at the Hope Wadell Institute in Calabar, Nigeria (offer
made by Foreign Mission Committee of the Church of Scotland). Here he spent six years,
training three hundred (300) teachers. He also established an agricultural school and a church.
Return to Jamaica
On returning to Jamaica in 1923, Ward settled in Islington, St. Mary where he served as pastor of
the Presbyterian Church for forty four (44) years and established Jamaica’s first basic school,
then called ‘play centres.’ The name subsequently changed as many parents were of the view
that this name was suggestive of play more than education. From this came Ward’s development
of the basic school movement. He also started a community training centre for teaching crafts to
girls and unemployed mothers and was the manager of Water Valley School in St. Mary, which
he significantly helped to rescue from failure and insufficient enrollment.
Later, Ward helped to establish Meadowbrook High School; he was one of its founders and also
the first chairman of its board of governors from 1959 to 1969. Other schools of which he was a
founding member include: St. Andrew High, Knox College and Cayman High School. Ward also
contributed to the former Board of Education as a member for twenty five (25) years. He also
advised the Ministry of Education on several matters relating to education such as staggered
school hours and teaching sex education.
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As a man who firmly believed in serving his nation, Ward continued to work until his “official”
retirement at age ninety (90) in spite of a stroke in 1967. In the Gleaner’s publication of its
Sunday Magazine, dated May 13, 1979, he remarked at a function at Meadowbrook High School,
“So long ago I decided by the grace of God to live for the people, the children, the nation and to
use Henry Ward as an instrument for that undertaking.”
In October 1941, Rev Ward used his influence as a member of the Board of Education to lobby
for better education for young children. He moved a resolution for the establishment of play
centres

throughout the island for children 3-7 years. He suggested that the programme in these play
centres include:
Reverend Henry ward took a holistic approach to education which meant that education should
focus on all aspect s of a child’s development including physical, mental and social development.
He believed that every child had a right to proper education
In October 1941, Rev Ward use his influence as a member of the Board of Education to lobby for
better education for young children. He moved a resolution for the better establishment of play
centres throughout the island for children aged 3-7 years. He suggested that the programme in
these play centres include:
 Organised play
 Stories (bible stories, fairy tales etc.)
 Singing
 Gardening
 Foundation work in Reading, Writing and Arithmetic

Awards & Honours

His contribution to education as well as other fields of work including religion and social work did
not go unrecognized. He received:
 The Distinguished Service Award from the Kiwanis of St. Mary in 1972
 The Order of Distinction from the Government of Jamaica in 1972
 The establishment of the Ward Scholarship by the Jamaica Banana Producers’ Association in
1975
 The establishment of the Henry Ward Scholarship at Gordon Cornwall Theological Seminary in
1978
  A certificate of Honour from the Jamaica Catholic Education Association in 1978
 The Service Award from Mico Old Students’ Association in 1979
Though Ward had a varied career, he left an indelible mark on the education and religious
landscape of Jamaica. On his 100th birthday, The United Church of Jamaica and Cayman, and
the Mico Old Students’ Association gave a vivid summarized description of not only Henry
Ward’s career path, but also his character— “A man inspired and inspiring, scholar, teacher,
preacher, politician, prophet, pioneer, missionary, ambassador, orator, educator, social worker,
farmer, writer, critic, administrator, counselor, director, dreamer, planner and builder, a man richly
endowed with excellent qualities.”
Henry Ward died at the age of a hundred and two (102) on June 4, 1981.

References
“Rev. Henry Ward: Pastor, educator retires at 90.” Sunday Gleaner, 9 Feb. 1969. Kingston:
“Rev. Henry Ward Dies at 102.” Daily Gleaner, 4 Jun. 1981.
Souvenir Citation: Rev. Henry Ward J.P., O.D., Centenarian, The united Church of Jamaica and
Grand Cayman, and MICO Old Students’ Association, May 28, 1979.
“Self died to Me, Long Ago Says Henry Ward.” The Sunday Gleaner Magazine. 13 May 1979.
In October 1941, Rev Ward used his influence as a member of the Board of Education to lobby
for better education for young children. He moved a resolution for the establishment of play
centres throughout the island for children 3-7 years. He suggested that the programme in these
play centres include:
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A PICTURE OF REVEREND HENRY WARD

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REVEREND MADGE SAUNDERS

Name: Marjorie Prentice Saunders

Birth: February 25, 1913
Death: March 2, 2009
Industry: Theology; Education
In 2005, she published her autobiography, Born to Serve: The Pioneering Ministries Marjorie
Sanders, a publication which is indicative of her contribution to the religious and education
landscape of Jamaica.  Born in 1913, Marjorie Saunders (popularly called Madge Saunders) was
raised in a middle class family in Galina, St. Mary, and was the sixth of seven children for her
parents. Her mother, Ida Myers Saunders, died at a young age, and her father, Walter E.
Saunders, was a wharf keeper and manager of Kerr and Company in Port Maria. She studied at
Free Hill School in Port Maria, St. Mary, St. Colm’s Missionary College in Edinburgh, Bethlehem
Moravian Training College in St. Elizabeth, and at London University where she attained a
Certificate of Proficiency in Religious Knowledge.
Life’s Work
Saunders, from a young age, was actively involved in the religious and educational life of
Jamaica. At the age of fourteen, following her success in the Pupil Teachers Examinations, she
taught as a voluntary pupil teacher at Galina Primary School in St. Mary. Here she began to
develop her understanding of education and decided to advance her knowledge in the field
through Bethlehem Moravian Teachers’ College in St. Elizabeth. She successfully completed
three years (1946-1948) at the College, where she was head girl for the entire period of her
study. Not only was she the head girl for three years, she was the first to have had acquired such
a position in the first year of study.
After graduating from teachers’ college, Saunders served as the principal of Hopeton Primary
School, a Moravian Institution. As a result of her father’s illness, she had to retire from this post in
order to care for him in Galina St. Mary. Here, she worked as a teacher at Galina Primary
School, a post in which she previously served. While serving in this post, Saunders established
arguably, the first school kitchen in Jamaica. This provided meals for students who came from
deprived economic circumstances.
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Saunders’s service at Galina Primary ended when she decided to become a committed servant
of the Presbyterian Faith. She had always had an interest in religious work, but in 1965, an offer
from the Presbyterian Church to be trained in Scotland for three years expedited her decision to
become a Presbyterian worker. She accepted the offer and was trained at St. Colm’s Missionary
College in Edinburgh, Scotland, where she successfully completed the training programme; she
was the first native Jamaican female to have had such training.
While studying in Britain, Saunders used her time to do religious work. She was Associate
Minister of St. James Presbyterian Church, Sheffield, England. In this post, she was able, it is
believed, to have “served as a ‘bridge’ in a truly theological sense between the migrant and
largely coloured community and white host community of Great Britain. One of the ways in which
she did this was through the publication of a handbook, “Living in Britain”, for migrants in Britain.
She was also:
 Founder and First President of the International Friendship Guild, St. James Presbyterian Church
 Member of the Sheffield Council of Churches and the Sheffield Radio Council
 Executive member of the Sheffield Committee for Community Relations
 Official School Visitor Sheffield Education Department
 Vice President of the West Indian Association Sheffield

 Member of the Migrant Standing Committee of the British Council of Churches

Education and religion were indispensable to her life. Following her return to Jamaica, in 1976,
Saunders became not just the first female minister of religion, but later, an icon in the United
Church of Jamaica and Grand Cayman, where she was assigned to the Salem branch in St.
Mary. Although this was the first religious post in which Saunders served on her return from
Britain, it was not the first time she was doing religious work in Jamaica. She had served as the
first fulltime Youth Organizer of the Presbyterian Church of Jamaica, a member of the Synodical
Council of the Presbyterian Church of Jamaica and the Executive Committee of the Assembly of
the Reformed Church in the Caribbean.
In the field of education, Saunders continued to make a marked contribution. Out of concern
about the lack of teacher training, particularly in early childhood education, she helped to
establish formal training for early childhood teachers. One of the ways which she started this was
to train six teachers, all from different parishes, for a period of six weeks. These teachers were
the first trained basic school teachers Jamaica had. She was also instrumental in the creation of
Mona and Iona Preparatory Schools, Meadowbrook High School, and the Kelly Lawson School,
an institution for training teachers and youth workers (Peace Women Across the Globe, 2013).
Saunders died on the 2nd of March 2009, b She observed that many classes were held for
young children in church hall and realised that the teachers needed more training. As a result,
she organised short teachers training courses for them. The courses began in 1950 and
included:

 English Language
 Speech
 Chart making
Story telling
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But her work never went unnoticed. Her accolades include:
 Nobel Peace Prize Nominee, 2005
 Certificate and Badge of Honour for meritorious service, 1960
References
 Atty, Dan Perky. “The Reverend Marjorie Prentice Saunders.” United Church of Jamaica and
Grand Cayman Islands, March 1981.
 Guy, Henry A. & Lavern Bailey. Women of Distinction in Jamaica. Kingston: Golding Printing
Service, 1978.
 Laing, Ellis. “Madge Saunders: ‘Born to Serve’.” Kingston: The Gleaner
 “Born to Serve: the Pioneering Ministries of Marjorie Prentice Saunders.” The Sunday Observer,
18 September, 2005.
 Neita, Clifton. Who’s Who Jamaica British West Indies 1954. Kingston: Who’s Who Jamaica
Limited, 1954.
 “Marjorie Prentice has Passed Away.” Peace Women Across the Globe. 1000peacewomen.org
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A PICTURE OF REVERND MAJORIE (MADGE) SAUNDERS

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

https://www.bing.com/images/search?
view=detailV2&ccid=ErWYI8UF&id=BCEE70DF14996C533BDF7B7FA
CB0CCEB2C5B2EF3&thid=OIP.ErWYI8UFW44Dkt_U

https://nljdigital.nlj.gov.jm/files/original/
5f24b06cacdf56aa063fa6c2cf718935.jpg

https://topscholarshelp.com/2021/11/17
Rev. Henry Ward (1879 – 1981) | The National Library of Jamaica (nlj.gov.jm)

Black History Month Early Childhood Pioneer | EARLY CHILDHOOD COMMISSION (home.blog)

Marjorie Prentice Saunders (1913-2009) | The National Library of Jamaica (nlj.gov.jm)

MadgeIn2002.png (420×604) (dangerouswomenproject.org)

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