R55m to boost ECD in OR Tambo
Funds for renovations, learning materials and nutrition at 586 centres
As part of government’s wider plan to prepare young children for formal schooling, Eastern Cape premier Oscar Mabuyane and social development MEC Siphokazi Mani-Lusithi have announced a R55m injection into 586 early childhood centres in the OR Tambo district municipal area.
The duo visited Cingco daycare centre in Cingco village in Tsolo on Wednesday, where Mabuyane officially handed over a cheque to the MEC, saying the money would assist in giving young children “ammunition” before they could enter formal schooling.
“You can’t talk development without giving them ammunition and skills to tackle the world,” he said.
“It is embarrassing when children in Grade 3 or 4 cannot read or write. That is why we talk of giving them ammunition.
“We are saying ‘let us capture them now so that when they enter formal education, they are ready’.”
The programme to equip ECD centres also forms part of the Child Protection Week programme.
Mani-Lusithi said the R55m donation would be used to renovate ECD centres in the district so that they conformed standards.
This included building proper structures and sanitation facilities.
A portion would also be used to buy stimulation materials for to required young children and also for nutrition.
“Nutrition plays an integral part in the development of a child physically, emotionally and psychologically,” she said.
She said as such, food played a vital role in not just building the brain of a child but also the capacity to think positively.
Cingco daycare centre principal Nonyameko Mkhungelwa-Yaso, whose school received about R155,000 of the R55m, said they were “happy”.
The centre was started in 1983, operating from a mud house.
A proper facility was built in 2014 when villagers clubbed together and raised the needed funds.
She said back then, children used to complain about chest pains as the mud structure was always damp inside.
One of the parents in Cingco, Michael Mzantsi, said prior to building the centre in the village, children were left in the care of grandmothers.
Sometimes that affected the children when they started their schooling, he said, as there was no one to ascertain whether they were ready to start formal schooling or not.
Welcoming the financial injection, OR Tambo NPO Forum secretary Songezo Khohliso said some centres had been started in rondavels and were therefore unable to receive financial assistance from the government due to not meeting the necessary requirements.
Centre began in a mud hut in 1983