Preschool teachers protest

“WE ARE raising presidents. We are raising police officers. We are raising doctors.”

Chanting these slogans, pre-school teachers from across the province marched to Parliament yesterday to deliver a memorandum of grievances to the minister of social development.

Chairperson of the SA Congress for Early Childhood Development in the Western Cape Melissa Jacobs said the government was doing “too little too slow” for the sector.

“Government needs to give recognition to the ECD sector. They have to remunerate us accordingly. Some of our staff have the same qualifications as Grade R teachers yet earn between R1 500 and R2 500 per month while recognised pre-school teachers earn up to R7 500,” said Jacobs.

Included in the list of grievances is an appeal that the government provide subsidies for all children aged 0-4, as it does for children at public primary schools.

Jacobs said many people started their own centres without the support of the government.

“They have money for free tertiary education so why don’t they have for ECD? Also, they take too long to register our ECD centres. They don’t want to register a shack, but they also do not help the people to make the centre safe.”

Jacobs said the government was required preschool teachers to obtain new qualifications, but it refused to recognise prior learning. She also called on government to remunerate preschool teachers according to their qualifications.

According to Jacobs there are more than 10 000 preschool teachers across the province whose jobs may be in jeopardy should the government push ahead and force them to obtain higher qualifications.

“They are the ones who trained us and now they are saying that training is not good enough. They are going to kill us,” said Jacobs.

Ashika Ely from Thaakira’s Day Care Centre in Mitchells Plain, lamented the sizes of the centres that they are allowed to have.

“We are governed by zoning. We need to be able to take in more children. They have different policies for different centres. It should all be the same for everyone,” said Ely.

Fazlin Ajam from Heideveld lashed out at what she called the government’s “unwillingness” to assist township centres.

“People live in wendy houses and shacks so why can’t they teach there? What are they actually saying about where people live? Norms and standards must be reviewed to accommodate all,” said Ajam.

The memorandum of grievances was accepted by the secretary for the national minister of social development.

BRENDAN MAGAAR African News Agency (ANA) HUNDREDS of preschool teachers took their grievances to Parliament yesterday.