Mpumalanga: Mpumalanga Department of Education launched the Early Childhood Development Support Programme and MEC for Education; Bonakele Majuba undertook a monitoring visit to Khulani Early Childhood Development Centre in Tjakastad under Mashishila Circuit in the Chief Albert Luthuli Local Municipality on Tuesday morning.
Khulani ECD Centre is one of the thirty-seven Early Childhood Development Centres located in the area.
The MEC met with Early Childhood Development sector stakeholders from 16 ECD Centre Managers from as far as Manzana, Tjakastad, Mooiplaas, Oshoek, Aramburg, eMbhuleni and Nhlazatshe to better understand how the 2024 school year kicked off in their various centres.
The engagements centred around LTSM, overall support, nutrition, stipends, physical infrastructure including toilets and ablutions facilities as well as centre management amongst other factors affecting ECD centres.
Centre Managers expressed their appreciation for the support and pledged to work harder to improve education delivery in the areas of influence.
“We are grateful to Khulani Early Childhood Development Centre for having the MEC visit us. Our centre was birthed by a need for an Early Childhood Development Centre to offer a much-needed service to the community,” said MEC Majuba.
The centre’s mission is to assist in developing our children holistically so that they can be better equipped for the foundation phase,” says Siphiwe Nkosi, Center Manager of Khulani ECD Center.
The Department is highly cognisant of the importance of Early Childhood Education as a foundation for learning and the initiation phase for schooling and thus seeks to ensure that the 2024 school is productive for schools and ECD centres in the province.
Furthermore, he asserted, “We are dealing with much-needed transformation to the ECD sector, which is not an event but a process.”
The Department has thus initiated the training of ECD practitioners at the ECD Institute situated in Bohlabela, Bushbuckridge, to mitigate the issue of skills development and qualifications in the sector.
“We are therefore confident that we are on the right track in developing a holistic system that is well-oiled for the development of our children at an early age from birth to 04 years.”
This is our mandate to move forward to professionalise the sector and treat our children with the love and care they deserve as we plant the important seed for their development,” said MEC Majuba.