KINGSTON, Jamaica — Jamaica’s national government is advancing a transformative early childhood education initiative, with plans to bring the innovative Nurturing Early Scientific Thinking (NEST) programme to every early childhood institution (ECI) across the island by the close of 2025. The groundbreaking programme, which focuses on building scientific reasoning from toddlerhood, completed a successful pilot phase between February and June 2025, with 25 participating ECIs across the Kingston and St Andrew region. According to Dr. Andrew Wheatley, Jamaica’s Minister of Science, Technology and Special Projects, the pilot sites were intentionally selected to represent a diverse cross-section of the country’s early education ecosystem, including institutions located in zones of special operations, low-performing facilities, and fully compliant high-functioning schools. Minister Wheatley made the official announcement during his Tuesday address to the Sectoral Debate in Jamaica’s House of Representatives. The pilot programme incorporated a robust capacity-building framework for educators: 25 participating teachers completed a specialized Training of Trainers course led by officers from Jamaica’s Early Childhood Commission, with ongoing mentorship support provided by the Association of Science Teachers of Jamaica. “The evaluation is positive. The evidence base is built. The scale-up plan is ready. We are now rolling NEST out nationally,” Minister Wheatley confirmed. The phased national expansion will target 500 ECIs across all seven of Jamaica’s education regions and all 14 parishes by the end of 2026, with rollout already underway in Kingston, St Andrew, Portland, St Mary and St Thomas. The next wave of expansion will reach St Ann, Trelawny, St James, Hanover, and Westmoreland, before the final phase brings the programme to St Catherine — home to 107 ECIs — and Clarendon, completing full national coverage by the end of 2025. Minister Wheatley emphasized that universal access to the programme is a core policy priority, arguing that the curiosity and questioning nurtured in early childhood lays the groundwork for the entrepreneurs, innovators, and problem-solvers that Jamaica’s future depends on. “That journey begins not at university, but at age three,” he noted. NEST represents Jamaica’s first structured, systemic effort to embed foundational skills of inquiry, problem-solving, and evidence-based reasoning into the earliest stages of formal education. The programme is centered on upskilling ECI educators to deliver developmentally appropriate, play-focused science learning, paired with custom-created children’s books and hands-on STEM activity kits designed specifically for young learners. Minister Wheatley explained that the focus on early childhood addresses a longstanding gap in Jamaica’s approach to STEM education. For decades, efforts to grow scientific thinking have been concentrated at the secondary and tertiary levels, a strategy he described as fundamentally misaligned with how children develop cognitive skills. “We must start cultivating scientific minds at the basic and primary level,” he stated. Reporting by Lynford Simpson
Wheatley: NEST programme targeting young scientists for all early childhood institutions
