Central SA
Neglect of seasoned ECD practitioners affects quality education─── CASEY-LEE ANTHONY 15:21 Fri, 28 Jun 2024
“Furthering the education of older practitioners would benefit them in planning correctly and understanding the requirements for teaching the children in their care, yet they aren’t given the opportunity.”
The lack of investment in early childhood development (ECD) hinders efforts to improve the quality of education for children, as opportunities to upskill practitioners over the age of 35 are much more limited.
According to the National Skills Development Strategy, they will be paying more attention to the training of South African youth for employment due to the high unemployment rate amongst people under the age of 35, and the fact that this group is more disadvantaged.
“They (older practitioners) are not seen to be ideal candidates for ECD funding, from corporates either due to the age of most of these practitioners, the ideal age to secure ECD funding is between the ages of 18 and 29,” said Santa Shoebox Project Member Nikki Lopes.
‘Often ECD practitioners are merely babysitters facilitating working parents’
Furthering the education of older practitioners would benefit them in how to plan correctly and understanding the requirements for teaching the children in their care, yet they aren’t given the opportunity.
Lopes added that after practitioners receive the necessary further education, the community respects them more and their self-confidence and self-worth grow with the acquisition of knowledge.
Often ECD practitioners are merely babysitters facilitating working parents and through this, the children are not given the stimulation they’re required to thrive this is shown in the Thrive By Five index Data where only 46% of pre-schoolers meet developmental milestones by the age of five.
‘Greater focus is required to improve the matric result outcome’
“Greater focus on the ECD environment is required to improve the matric result outcome, as a child has shown to develop and acquire more skills between birth and five than at any other times in their lives.”
The Santa Shoebox Project has concentrated its spending on ensuring that the early childhood development sector will reap the benefits of its contribution.
The project has multiple initiatives that focus mainly on early childhood development, which has educated over 600 teachers, and to date close to 2 000 have been trained.
