With the beginning of each academic year, we can only raise the supplication to our sons and daughters, that their year be crowned with success and openness at the gates of blessing, they are the generation of the day that we carry hopes, and they are the hope of tomorrow that we dream of a brighter future, this occasion is a permanent reminder that education is a life journey that starts from the first moment when the child takes the threshold of the class.
In the past days, I stopped at a study by Jessica Alexander, which dealt with the Danish experience in the inclusion of sympathy as an essential part of the curricula, the experiment carried an exquisite title that is “the time of the class”, which is a weekly hour in which the teacher and students devote himself to the practice of kindness, discussing personal or academic challenges, and developing emotional awareness, the purpose of this share is not limited to promoting good behavior The brain itself, neuroscience research has shown that the practice of sympathy strengthens dandruff in front of the forehead, which is the part responsible for organizing emotions and adopting the views of others.
In this way, there is a kind of “reprogramming” the minds of Danish children nervously to be more able to understand and support others, and the result was amazing: low bullying rates, enhancing cooperation at the expense of competition, and the emergence of a generation that deals with the other with an understanding mind and an open heart, this experience embodies a deep investment in building personality from a young age, away from the idea of educational luxury.
When I read its details, I found myself thinking about our local reality. And another enters the school directly from the house, he discovers these basics for the first time in a new crowded environment, so he stumbles into integration and needs a double effort from the teacher and his colleagues to catch up with.
Here the importance of that there is at least one mandatory year in the kindergarten before moving to primary education, this year is not an additional burden on the family, but rather a preliminary bridge that connects the child to the school from its widest doors, and it is an opportunity to test the system, so he learns that time has value, and that the teacher has a place, and that colleagues have rights and duties, the kindergarten does not give the child academic skills as much as the language of dealing With others and understanding the social framework for learning.
When I browsed some discussions on social media, I found that this problem does not concern Bahrain alone, many teachers in other countries from the region raising the same voice: If the kindergarten was mandatory, the image of the first grades would change radically, and teachers see with their own eyes the difference between the pre -prepared child and the child who suddenly enters school, the difference appears in the speed of understanding, in the ability to express, in harmony with activities, and even in self -confidence.
Suggestions have been offered in previous periods about making the kindergarten mandatory, but it still needs an expanded discussion and executive will that adopts this vision, because modern education is no longer limited to teaching science, but rather has become a project to build man from the first moment Start.
In the face of this vision, I cannot help but the newest praise with the Minister of Education, Dr. Muhammad bin Mubarak Jumaa, whom we have known since the ministry’s portfolio received a translation of ideas and proposals to tangible actions, we here offer a view from outside the educational system, we see that the mandatory of at least one year in the kindergarten will contribute to preparing children for the school and facilitating the task of teachers, but the decision in the end is in the hands of this sector Its exact details, the trust is that the minister is the most capable of estimating whether this step is beneficial to the stage or whether the conditions need a different path, so the field is in his hands and it is known for its details.
