Every young learner deserves quality attention

African children studying in class

To begin with, it is worth mentioning that all children have the funda­mental right to education. This includes children with learning difficul­ties. By implication, every child must or deserves to be given the opportunity to achieve and maintain an optimum level of learning with their unique potentials, abilities and interests, as affirmed by the Salamanca Statement (UNESCO, 1994).

The statement suggests that educa­tional systems and programmesshould be designed and implemented to take into consideration the wide diversity of thecharacteristics and learning needs of all children.

WHY SHOULD YOUNG LEARNERS BE GIVEN QUALITY ATTENTION?

Each/every child is unique, has differ­ent ways, styles, capabilities, capacities of learning so they should be handled accordingly. Whiles some grasp concepts at a faster rate, others go a bit slow and yet others may still need a little more time, one on one attention, more demonstration, pictorial demonstration, etc. to maximise the learning potential.

Also, when each individual is given the opportunity to participate during the teaching-learning process in any capacity before the end of the lesson, they are happy, feel part of the class or group and not left out; hence it builds some level of confidence in them, their morale is high and some who formerly were silent in class might now begin to speak out and shine!

It takes great commitment, much interest in planning your lesson consid­ering the various levels of your learners to achieve much by educators, teachers. With passion and quest to have each of your learners grasp or learn something from your time spent with them as a teacher is a fulfilling experience for you as an educator!

The greatest sense of reward for a teacher is to see his/her young leaners succeed!

The writer is an Educational Devel­opment and Training specialist. She is also an inspirational speaker

 By Docia Ocansey