The Early Childhood Commission (ECC) has launched the Early Childhood Care and Education–Progress Assessment Tool for Transformation (ECCE PATT) as part of efforts to strengthen and expand access to quality early-childhood development, care, and pre primary education across Jamaica.
ECCE PATT is a structured self diagnostic instrument developed by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to help countries evaluate and strengthen their ECCE systems
ECC Chair, Trisha Williams Singh, told JIS News that the Tashkent Declaration and Commitments to Action for Transforming Early Childhood Care and Education, adopted during the UNESCO World Conference on Early Childhood Care and Education in November 2022, represented a decisive step in advancing the ECCE agenda worldwide.
She noted that particular attention was given to Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Target 4.2, which commits countries to ensuring that all girls and boys have access to quality early-childhood development, care, and pre primary education by 2030. This global commitment lays a strong foundation for lifelong learning.
According to UNESCO, with only four years remaining, the world is significantly off track in meeting this target, underscoring the urgent need for accelerated action and investment.
“Jamaica already has a strong foundation in early-childhood governance, making it an ideal environment to apply this; Jamaica’s ECC sector includes public, private and community-based institutions. We have a strong regulatory and institutional framework, we have over 98 per cent of students enrolled in pre-primary education, recognising the commitment to improving child outcome,” Mrs. Williams-Singh shared.
She indicated that ECCE PATT will serve as a key guide in helping Jamaica strengthen and further transform its already established early-childhood system.
“While Jamaica has made significant progress, implementation gaps still exist,” the ECC Chair noted, adding that many institutions operate with permits while far fewer have attained full certification.
Mrs. Williams Singh emphasised that these challenges highlight the need for greater attention to system bottlenecks, capacity constraints, reform sequencing, policy alignment, and stronger cross sector coordination.
“So ECCE-PATT gives us an opportunity to move from isolated improvements towards a more coherent system-wide transformation approach,” she stated.
ECCE-PATT supports governments and stakeholders in analysing national ECCE systems across four dimensions and 16 sub-dimensions: policy and governance; access and participation; quality and relevance; and personnel.
