The environmental difference between day care centres and normal schools, gave the Department of Basic Education (DBE) a number of challenges when the migration of Early Childhood Development (ECD) centres from the Department of Social Department (DSD) to DBE occurred
This is according to principal ML Mokoena from George Mbilase Primary School, located in Daveyton, eTwatwa in the East Rand.
According to Mokoena, the main purpose of the transition was driven by the large gap which existed as a result of the non-correlation of the systems and syllabus in the private ECD sector and the school one.
“I profoundly believe that this shift will eradicate the obstacles we’ve encountered in the past of learners taking long to get acclimatized to the operations of the school system, enhancement of learner motor skills and actually learning instead of the norms of recitations and sleeping in day care centres,” Mokoena said.
Mokoena also stated that the transition has not only been good for learners, but also for ECD educators because they also benefit from this change.
“Our ECD teachers are now well equipped with the knowledge and skills they need to train a child and prepare them for the next grade. They’ve moved from receiving a stipend to earning a salary under the DBE. This serves as motivation for them to look forward to teaching and going an extra mile to ensure that they lay a firm foundation in these learners”, said Mokoena.
She expressed her joy with how the DBE did not exclude the ECD practitioners who were already present at the school, but instead awarded them with bursaries to study further so they are fully qualified teachers in possession of a Relative Equivalent Qualification Value (REQV) level 14 qualification.
“From now onwards, the DBE has set an REQV level 14 qualification as the minimum requirement for one to be an ECD educator. This shows how much the DBE stresses the importance of education,” she stated.
She also said that the training of ECD teachers has had a great impact in enabling the school to give learners a rigid foundation of skills and knowledge needed for them to bridge the gap caused by the transitioning from ECD to primary school.
Take for instance Sindi Khumalo who is a Grade R teacher at the school. She says this opportunity has given her a sense of financial stability and security. She also added that the school now has language and mathematics as paramount subjects of study which were not there prior to the move of ECD to DBE.
“The learners engage with so much excitement and are eager to know more”, Khumalo added.
According to information on the DBE website, the purpose of the ECD is to manage the development, evaluation and maintenance of policy, programmes and systems for early childhood development.
The functions of ECD include:
- Managing the development, evaluation and maintenance of policy, programmes and systems for early childhood development in the reception years.
- Develop, evaluate and maintain an accreditation system for providers and trainers.
- Develop and maintain policy concerning programmes, qualifications and assessment for early childhood development.
- Render support to qualifications and quality assurance authorities concerning early childhood development.