Grade R discussion workshop

Date Released: Tue, 24 May 2011 11:17 +0200

The Centre for Social Development (CSD) hosted the Provincial Grd R Discussion workshop on 17 May at the Post Graduate Village. The purpose of the workshop was to discuss issues arising from a report generated by the South African Institute for Distance Education (Saide), investigating the readiness of the South African education system to formalise Grade R. The report, funded by the Zenex foundation, further explores the readiness of teachers and the children in relation to what they should be able to do in Grade R and how teachers are prepared to be able to teach in that grade. Staff from CSD, the Faculty of Education, NMMU as well as some officials from the Department of Basic Education engaged in a lively debate to discuss the main issues of importance to the early childhood development (ECD) sector arising from the Saide report.

The Department of Education’s White Paper 5 defines ECD as a comprehensive approach to policies and programmes for children from birth to nine years, yet the focus on formal ECD provision seems to start only with Grade R. It was highlighted that although Grade R plays a bridging role into formal schooling, children’s needs are still centred on the developmental domains and play and it is crucial that teachers understand and know the needs of children at the various developmental stages during early childhood.

CSD offers Level 4 and 5 training that focus on an understanding of how to facilitate learning through play, as well as understanding the NCS. A lot of emphasis is also placed on emergent literacy and numeracy facilitation. Unique to CSD’s approach to ECD training is the fact that education of the child cannot be done in isolation from the parents and the community, at least in a South African context.

The issue of collaboration was also widely discussed and it was agreed that collaborative relationships between stakeholders like NGO’s, FET colleges and HEI’s should be developed and strengthened. Rhodes University is currently the only university in the country which has an NGO as one of its institutes focussing primarily on a socio development approach ECD training for practitioners based at ECD centres.