Click Here to Sign up to our Newsletter!
17 April 2024
By The Love Trust
Johannesburg, South Africa, 2 February - Early Childhood Development (ECD) is an incredibly important life stage for children and has a lot to do with their success later in life. Unfortunately, there's a huge shortage of registered ECD centres and qualified ECD teachers in the Western Cape. This is why The Love Trust is expanding its ECD Teacher Training programme in the Western Cape. The pilot project launched on 21 January 2023, and through B-BBEE funding and corporate partnerships, the vision is to increase the number of trained and qualified ECD teachers and centres across the Western Cape.
Reverend Andrew Barnes, Western Cape Regional Director, talks about the importance of this expansion and what differentiates this training centre from others in the Western Cape. He also discusses the importance of working with local ECD platforms and his hopes for this project.
About Reverend Andrew Barnes
Rev. Barnes has been pastoring a church in Mitchells Plain for the past 18 years. Roughly 10 years ago he was approached by The Love Trust founder and CEO, Martin Morrison, whom he knew through ReachSA, to start a school similar to the one that The Love Trust started in Thembisa - Nokuphila Pre- and Primary School.
This happened with the help of Renier Coetzee, Alexa Van Wyk and Rev. Barnes, who was the pastor of Trinity Church, and together they founded Trinity Children's Centre. To date there have been two groups of grade 7 learners who graduated to high school.
Based on the impactful work that Rev. Barnes had done in the Mitchells Plain area he was asked to head the expansion of The Love Trust's ECD Teacher Training programme in the Western Cape.
The Love Trust's ECD Teacher Training Centre in Mitchells Plain
Rev. Barnes approached a number of organisations already set in place to help ECDs network to share information and other resources to gauge the need, as well as to leverage the existing knowledge base to the community's benefit.
He spoke to the Early Learning Resources Unit, a NPO with decades of experience in the ECD sector, because they are the social services organisation for Mitchells Plain, who then put him in contact with the local ECD forums. Through the valuable support and assistance from ‘Aunty’ (a proud title in the community) Valda Philips, Deputy Chairperson of the Mitchells Plain Educare Forum, a staggering 24 teachers arrived for registration for the pilot programme. The turnout makes Rev. Barnes hopeful for the future as it shows support from the local ECD Forum, ECDs and teachers looking to boost their careers and expand their knowledge.
This programme, which runs from St Luke’s Church in Rocklands, Mitchells Plain, will be used to iron out any unforeseen issues as Rev. Barnes develops the academy over the year. By 2024 they'll be able to offer 4 full-day training sessions per week (as opposed to the current 1-day a week programme) as well as a number of satellite campuses and affiliated centres up the West Coast and the Garden Route.
What makes The Love Trust’s ECD Teacher Training unique?
"Although there are lots of NGOs and people offering good training, they're not all offering the qualification training – National Qualifications Framework (NQF) Level 4 and up, which is needed for the schools to register so that they can get the government subsidy,” Rev. Barnes points out.
The Love Trust’s ECD Teacher Training goes beyond just the NQF Level 4 and 5 requirements. All training is faith-based, integrating Christian values into the teaching philosophy to help teachers nurture children’s spiritual development, as well as their physical growth. Personality development is also an important factor so that children can develop self-confidence, empathy, and resilience.
What does this mean for corporate partners?
The programme requires teachers in training to pay a nominal fee, as it's been shown that people who pay for training are more likely to attend the session. This also establishes a customer-client relationship in which the student teachers have the right to voice any complaints. Yet, a large part of the training costs is subsidised by outside investment.
The Love Trust is looking for corporate partners in the Western Cape, who are interested in making a difference by helping to expand the training programme and gain B-BBEE points at the same time. Not only does The Love Trust guarantee that all funding raised in the Western Cape will only go towards teacher training in the region, but there is also collaboration with a Western Cape Funding Committee to help build partnerships and ensure transparency and accountability.
Why does this matter?
The Western Cape is home to 4,464 childcare facilities, but two-thirds of them lack the necessary registration. Without government subsidies and proper oversight, these unregistered providers run a significant risk of closure due to minimal private sector investment. Should they be lucky enough to survive they most likely won't be able to provide the same level of quality and standards of registered nursery schools and creches.
"We need existing teachers to get qualified, but we also need to double the number of teachers and the number of ECD centres, or at least expand ECDs,” says Rev. Barnes.
The implications of supporting ECDs for the next generation of learners are very clear for Rev. Barnes: "The person who can solve the Eskom problem is the child who has attended a competent preschool. And I want that person to come from Mitchells Plain and be a hero for the country."
This is because Rev. Barnes believes that providing quality ECD learning to children gives them a huge head start for primary school and helps relieve the pressures on high schools, in terms of academic performance and the number of dropouts among students. "Because," says Rev. Barnes, "they will have a group of students, who no matter how bad the situation is in high school, will want to learn because they love learning. And they've understood that learning is helpful."
The Love Trust’s expansion of its ECD Teacher Training programme provides an opportunity for companies looking for ways to make an impact on society by investing in our future generations. Let’s work together towards enriching lives across South Africa’s Western Cape region.
About The Love Trust
Our purpose
What we do
Where we’re headed
Visit the Love Trust website at www.lovetrust.co.za
Article supplied By The Love Trust directly to eduweb.africa - Copyright protected ©
© 2024 - eduweb.africa
