By Frederick Philander OKAHANDJA A first draft of the Ministry of Education’s Early Childhood Development Programme has been completed after work started on curriculum design only a few months ago. This was said yesterday at NIED by the chairperson of the task force responsible for the final curriculum, Gerty Fredericks. She was speaking at the handing over of fourteen laptops to education experts working on the programme by Techna.’, the IT arm of the education ministry. “We are well on track with our research. In fact, the first draft of the curriculum has been completed and we are well on our way to addressing various other components and modalities of our task,” Fredericks said. The task force was in January appointed to have such curriculum ready for implementation in 2008. “Through the new curriculum the Ministry of Education intends providing pre-school learners with a balanced, relevant and coherent programme of instruction and learning with a view to develop skills, kindle interests, instill values and strengthen personality traits,” she reminded the receivers of the laptops, which she considers to be a giant leap for her group’s research. “I am certain that with this state-of-the-art computer technology at our disposal the research team will be able to perform their task with a greater degree of confidence. In my view learning, is a life-long process that begins at birth. In a manner of speaking with these laptops … a new baby is born,” she said.