Starter Kit. Idea 330 of 500. Cluster 16
Early-years teacher training, because the Montessori trade is enormous
The mechanism, from the book
177,000 qualify every year and 45,000 get a place. The other 130,000 are a market that nobody has built for, and the polytechnic is not a second choice when it leads to a job.
The first step
Visit five preschools in your town and ask the owners what training their teachers have, what they wish they had, and what they would pay for a short certificate course. Then run one Saturday workshop on a single skill, such as early reading, and charge a small fee. Preschool owners who book staff onto a second session are the proof.
- Who pays first
- A preschool owner who needs trained teachers to win parents' trust and will pay for a short certificate course for the staff.
- What leaves today
- The Montessori trade is enormous and unregulated, so parents pay for early education with no proof of its quality.
Ask first
- Tertiary and Vocational Education Commission. Ask whether a short certificate for preschool teachers can be accredited.
Check before you spend
Whether preschools and their training must be registered with a provincial body, and what the certificate will honestly allow its holders to claim.
Find out these three numbers
- What would a preschool owner pay to train one teacher?
- How many preschools are within an hour of you?
- Which single skill do owners most want their teachers to have?
The test
Does it keep value that now leaves the island, or build the proof that lets somebody else do so?
From the appendix of Why Not Sri Lanka? by Dr Maheshika Halbeisen. The idea and the mechanism are the book's; this kit was written for the site.