Pioneers of Early Childhood Education

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Reverend Henry Ward Rev Henry Ward served as a United Church Minister in Jamaica. Seeing the need for childcare for working mother's he established the first play center in 1938 that served children under six years old. Soon after he began a campaign to formalize education and play at these centers along with his colleagues. Surprisingly, he was met with resistance by parents who disliked the term play center. The term "play center" was changed to Basic School. Rev. Ward began the first Basic School in Jamaica during the 1940's. In addition to coining the term basic school, Rev Ward is also credited with establishing Meadowbrook High School in conjunction with the Rev Marjorie Saunders. Reverend Henry Ward is best known for changing the Jamaican school system. Up until Reverend Henry Ward got involved with the government to change it, the system was a flawed, failing system, with hundreds, if not thousands of children unable to get educated because of the lack of facilities. Although churches and infant centers tried their best to cater for as many children as possible, there was simply too much demand. That was until Reverend Henry Ward got involved in the schooling system. In 1938, Reverend Henry Ward started researching primary education for young children and began to campaign for children in Jamaica. The campaign was a hard task to take on, as there very little education services back then, and not a lot of money was put aside by the government to place into building and creating schools and education centers. In 1938, after alerting the government of the desperate need for primary schools, Reverend Henry Ward developed a number of community schools that later became known as "basic schools”. He then went on to create schools in areas that needed critical help. He once said in an interview that he created a school for 3-6 year olds after seeing them

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