Central SA
D-Day for Free State Education Department─── TSHEHLA KOTELI 07:50 Thu, 25 Aug 2022
The Free State Department of Education is expected to give a reply on Thursday - in writing - to the memorandum handed over by the South African Congress for Early Childhood Development (SACECD).
Thursday marks at least thirteen working days since the list of grievances and demands were accepted by the director in the office of the MEC, Jonas Ramokgwase. When accepting the memorandum, he stated he is positive the department will reply within the period prescribed by the members of the SACECD, because the issues contained in the memorandum were already on the agenda of the department to be given attention to.
The provincial chairperson of the SACECD, Sebongile Radebe-Phori, said on Wednesday the department has since contacted her telephonically to inform her the reply to the memorandum is ready, however, they are just waiting for the signature of the MEC of Education, Tate Makgoe, before they deliver the reply.
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Earlier this month, Radebe-Phori led the peaceful march to the department’s headquarters to hand over the memorandum. The SACECD is a national democratic body for early childhood development in South Africa. It mobilises and recruits Early Childhood Development (ECD) practitioners and organisations to lobby the government and advocate for communities to increase access to ECD for children.
The memorandum in question includes the R1751 stipend that the ECD employees receive because it has stood at that amount for some time now. Amongst the grievances, is how the department expects unfunded preschools to be on the same standards as the funded ones.
ECD was previously under the care of the Department of Social Development, but has since been moved to the Department of Education - the reason is unclear at the moment. Radebe-Phori made it clear at the march that they never wanted to take the route of causing disruption. They have, however, tried by their level means to get the attention of the department.
“The department has sometimes made promises, but those promises never came through.”
They do, however, acknowledge the assistance they have received with the academic curriculum from the department - but say most of their problems remain unsolved. OFM News has sent an inquiry to the department to establish if they will indeed send the reply on Thursday.
