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Rural preschool teachers get much-needed help

Tue, 27 Jul 2010 12:18

Eric Mashaba

An Early Childhood Development (ECD) initiative in Mpumalanga's Daantjie trust area near Nelspruit has received a much-needed boost of R400 000.

The money, which was given to the Ntataise Lowveld Trust during a function at the Sacred Heart Preschool recently, formed part of Absa bank's initiative to uplift the communities in which it operates.

This grant is aimed at empowering and equipping women in the community with the knowledge and skills needed to ensure they provide the best foundation to the children in their care.

About 50 ECD practitioners who reach more than 2 500 children will benefit from this contribution because the money will be used to train them through the Ntataise Lowveld Trust. Afterwards, the practitioners will receive a national certificate which will enable them to run their centres as small businesses.

Pat Moodley, chief educational specialist for early childhood development in the provincial Department of Education, said people wrongly thought that their success as adults was based on getting a good matric.

“Preschool is the foundation and people should change their mind-set that everything is about Grade 12," he said.

Ntataise Lowveld Trust is an accredited training provider that also holds monthly workshops to complement its courses.

These cover topics such as health and hygiene, managing HIV in the classroom, and running creches in a rural setting. It has also taught computer literacy to about 2 500 preschool teachers. BuaNews