The nexus between early childhood education and crime

These are the stories in the news announced by leaders in the past week. The question is, do you now see why Jamaica has the highest crime rate in the region? And in this hemisphere? Various factors in our lives, attributable to increased crime, have remained unchanged for as long as life existed; politics, drugs, peer pressure, poverty, the unfair justice system, unequal rights, unemployment, socioeconomic background, and even religion.

A closer look at all these factors reveals that the criminals' identity is based on people making rational decisions when faced with the decision to or not be unlawful. Poverty doesn't make a man a criminal. The person chooses between good and bad when they must make a decision. They commit a crime all by themselves. Similarly, a person doesn't go out and steal just because they have not worked for many years. Situations arise; they review the situation's cost and benefit and decide to commit a crime because that action has more benefits than good. It's the same for all the crime-related factors listed above.

However, in reasoning and rationalizing, one has to know about right and wrong, good from evil, be exposed to parents who instill values in them, and possess extra exposure to help them make sound judgments. If, early in their lives, they are exposed only to crime and deviance through listening, observing, and modeling, their decisions are limited to only what they learned.

Lawful decisions should not be expected of them; because we can’t squeeze milk out of coffee.

Children are not born criminals. We already know that. Cesare Lombroso's theory of the criminal man in 1876 had been shot down and put to sleep; we no longer believe that criminality is inherited and people were born criminals. We also don't think that the size of our heads, lips, and skin colour make anyone a criminal. Instead, criminality is a learnt behaviour.

That said, just as we learn to read, write, infer, reason, and develop good behaviour, a young child is susceptible to learning criminality. The child needs only a model willing to teach them (gang members or leaders). The young child learns antisocial and criminal behaviour just like the child who learns normal (good) behaviour. The best time to teach good or bad behaviour is early childhood. Therefore, gang leaders can easily shape a child (who does not have proper guidance) into criminality.

Now that we have set the stage, we can look at Jamaica's early childhood system to see how children are cared for and prepared for life. Here are some facts. The Ministry of education promised Jamaican children:

• To maximize parental involvement in the lives of the children and minimize the number of at-risk children and youth
• To maximize the percentage of Jamaican children and youth who have access to and/or attachment to quality care, stimulation, education, and/or training (0 - 29 years)
• To maximize the number of children who live in a safe, secure, and healthy state care environment.
• To maximize access to official records, provide information and digital literacy.
• To maximize the performance of students
• To maximize the percentage of Jamaican education programs and institutions that meet prescribed quality standards

A review of the above indicates that efforts to include all children are inadequate. The term "to maximize" gives leeway and relaxes the role and responsibility of the ministry for them only to spend time supporting only with children, so they have easy access. The mandate should read instead that "all children age 0 to 24. If the child remains in school without stopping, the support goes to age 29."

In February this year, the Governor General announced that 2022 is designated early childhood development. This is a great move to highlight the importance of early childhood development and give focus to stakeholders to invest more in the sector.

First, there are approximately 3,000 early childhood institutions in the country. More than 2,700 are basic (privately held schools), and 300 infant schools are government-operated.

The Government of Jamaica primarily spends less on the most important sector of education; early childhood development. Most adult Jamaicans attended basic schools. Both basic and infant schools are governed by the Early Childhood Commission, which reports to the Ministry of Education. The Commission has certified approximately 300 infant schools (converted from basic schools). Certification means that the 12 standards set by the Commission have been met, and the government's infant school programme will absorb basic schools to become funded. Basic and infant schools, including day care facilities, host children from 0 - 5 1/2. Afterward, they enroll in primary school education, beginning with grade one.

Some findings

According to the World Bank-funded Systems Approach for Better Education Results (SABER) Early Childhood Development Country Report, children 3-6 who receive social activities, educational concepts, and creative skills are better prepared for primary and secondary school. Children zero to three, who are stimulated, and get brain builder exercises, are likely to perform better from age 3-6 at the basic and infant schools.

The SABER report further states that the challenges in the early childhood sector are grave:

• The governing body focuses on the pre-primary school for children ages 3-6, but early learning opportunities are not as easily available for children in the 0-3 age group. This means there is a gap that brain builder activities must fill.
• Quality assurance measures have been enhanced recently, but compliance with standards could still be improved. There are still 2,700 schools that are not operating to the standards set by the Commission.
• The governing bodies declare that every child has a right to publicly funded tuition at pre-primary and primary levels, yet, only 10% of the schools are funded; 2,700 basic schools are not publicly funded and not free.
• No national law establishes a minimum level of public funding for ECD services. Currently, financing for ECD is relatively voluntary in nature.
• No official mechanisms exist to ensure sustainably investments of ECD in Jamaica.
• The GoJ pays 4,000 early childhood practitioners a salary subsidy determined by qualifications and experience, which ranges from JA$177,600 to JA$307,743 per year.

Teachers in basic schools are supposed to be paid on the same salary scale based on their training qualifications, but most are not adequately compensated. In addition to the government salary subsidies, teachers from basic schools rely on compensation from school fees. Unfortunately, in basic schools, parents do not always pay the fees, so teachers' salaries are often inadequate.

The gaps in education are significant. Inner-city children at the early childhood level are at risk of failing at the next levels, but worst are learning the “benefits of deviance and violence”. They are not busy building strong education standards; therefore, they learn unlawful behaviour that creeps in as a normative lifestyle. That’s possible because they:

• Listen to adults disrespecting each other and adopts the behaviour
• Witness fights and physical abuse of one spouse by the other
• Observe bus and taxi drivers breaking the law with impunity,
• Listen and respond to lewd music
• Watch television programmes with violence and explicit sexual activity scenes.
• Experience the breakdown of morals, lawlessness, and accepting it as normal behaviour

How, then, do we expect that when they get older (15 - 17 years old), they will act lawfully?

If we erect excellent homes or commercial buildings, the foundation is the first and most essential part of such structures. The foundation holds the building together from wind, rain, and elements. If the home is burnt to the ground, the foundation is always intact to rebuild from. In education, governments spend more funding and effort at the upper level of education, primary and secondary, and tertiary, then forget the foundation that needs to set our children's future right.

Learning criminality and normal behaviour occurs in the same manner; cognitively, socially, emotionally, and environmentally. If socioeconomic conditions contribute to deviance and antisocial behaviour, without structured interventions, the door is open for children to learn criminality early anywhere. Criminologist Terrie Moffit's theory is used around the world. It states that a life-course persistent criminal and antisocial behaviour onset early in life, and the young baby or child becomes a life-long offender.

Social learning is one of the most significant impacts on a persistent criminal's life course. In Jamaica, if they are not learning in a structured educational situation that keeps them busy early, another deviant individual will likely teach them the skills of criminality through social or environmental means. The best time to learn anything is at the early childhood level. A child will repeat what they learn. We cannot build without a proper foundation. Early stimulation requires government intervention. In other countries, persons with advanced degrees are teaching these little citizens to lay the foundation right. Jamaica should take heed.

Based on the above, some solutions to the crime problem are recommended. Remember that an excellent police force must be in the middle of the plan. To stabilize crime, maintaining law and order is primary. However, the law must be reasonable, fair, and impartial.

• Employ long-term solutions alongside short term
• Spend more money on foundational education (early childhood)
• Train more teachers in early childhood and special education.
• Grandfathers-in basic schools and upskill staff, and invest in more infant schools.
• Standardize teaching-learning at the ECE level, as primary and secondary are standardized.
• Standardizing ECE keeps children 0-3 with standardized brain builders and builds a curriculum with a standard booklist for 3-6 years old to play, listen, share, and group learning.
• Take the guessing and trial and error out of the ECE
• Digitize learning at ECE
• While upskilling current practitioners, infuse the classroom with certified teachers.
• Pay better salaries for ECE teachers because they are preparing our country for the future.
• Empower parents to participate in education and be accountable for their children's attendance.
• Employ guidance counselors at the ECE level (age 3-6)

Education is the key to solving the root cause of crime. Police can reduce crime, but all officers and leaders must buy into a plan to reduce crime. Policymakers must make policies for the police to execute. Police officers enforce according to the procedures.

Leo Gilling is a social broadcaster, writer, philanthropist, journalist, and entrepreneur and chairman, Jamaica Diaspora Taskforce Action Network. Send feedback to leogilling@msn.com.