The word Montessori is synonymous with pre-school in Sri Lanka, a country that has one of the highest literacy rates in Asia. The great Italian educator Dr. Maria Montessori founded and refined a system of child care that is still accepted internationally as the most effective way to educate toddlers. Among Dr. Montessori’s first students, after she made India her home in 1940, was Joyce Goonesekera, an energetic and enthusiastic 30-year-old pre-school teacher at the time.
“Aunty Joyce”, as she was known all her life by her little pupils, was totally absorbed in the teachings of Dr. Montessori. After spending six years studying under the great pioneer educationist, Aunty Joyce returned to Sri Lanka in 1948 to introduce the Montessori method in her hometown, Galle.
The school was so successful that Aunty Joyce expanded her operations to Colombo, opening the Montessori House of Children in 1951, followed shortly after by the Montessori Training Centre. Through the two institutions, Aunty Joyce tutored infants according to Dr. Montessori’s methods and trained young teachers to follow in her footsteps.
How did Aunty Joyce’s methods differ from those of other pre-schools?
The Montessori method avoided examinations and grading schemes and instead encouraged teachers to “observe” little children and encourage them to learn on their own. The method identified critical stages in a child’s development, such as when he or she learns to talk, crawl and walk. Montessori teachers learn to identify these stages in a child’s growth and thereby help accelerate the child’s learning process.
When Joyce Goonesekera passed away in November 2003, aged 93, she was known not only as Aunty Joyce but also as Deshabandu Joyce Goonesekera, a title she received from President Ranasinghe Premadasa in 1989 for a lifetime dedicated to the teaching of Sri Lanka’s children and their teachers.
Spreading the Montessori method across Sri Lanka was perhaps the greatest service ever rendered to the education of our country’s youth. Science Magazine published a study in September 2006 that showed that pre-schoolers in Montessori schools performed far better than those in other types of pre-schools.
Thanks to the tireless efforts of the late Joyce Goonesekera, Sri Lanka long ago achieved a goal that developed countries around the world are still scrambling to replicate.
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