06 Mar 2017

The prospects of early childhood education rely on stakeholders’ collaboration,  says principal development community officer, Ms Joyce Bosele.
Speaking during daycare centre needs identification stakeholders’ workshop,  Ms Bosele said it was vital that all stakeholders step out of their silos and start working as a team.
“It is evident from the presentations that stakeholders are working in isolation. Working in silos will not take us anywhere,” she stated.

Ms Bosele, who is a Ghanzi team coordinator of citizen dialogue project that consist of Ghanzi District in partnership with Swedish and Moldovan Municipalities, geared to improve early childhood education, called on stakeholders to come up with plans and share available resources.

Councillor for New Xade, Mr Xhale Kilo  called for mindset change  of parents towards preschool education.
“If they could be a mindset change towards preschool, parents will start enrolling their children and encouraging them to attend classes.”

Senior assistant day care officer for Ghanzi District, Ms Shirley Cooper, who acknowledged that preschools status in her jurisdiction were below set standards, said parents do not recognise early childhood education.
She said parents would prefer to send their five- year-old child to standard one than to preschool.

Reacting to a concern of food shortage at New Xade preschool, that was attributed to absenteeism of children at the school, community development officer, Ms Keduetse Kanguaiko said the issue would be addressed.
Ms Kanguaiko explained that the arrangement was that council provided food and the parents provided firewood.
In some areas, Ms Kanguaiko said parents failed to provide firewoods.

Also, she said uniform was given to deserving students only, adding that not all children fall under their care.
She said parents, who could afford, were expected to pay a certain amount  to the preschool, but regretted that this was not happening,  which affected the council’s budget in the process.

For his part, chief executive officer of Ale Municipality and member of steering committee for the collaboration between Ghanzi District in partnership with Swedish and Moldovan Municipalities, Mr Bjorn Jarbhr stated that they  experienced some similar  challenges in preschools back home, but the  municipality had no money to help them.
Through  community support, he said they made a  breakthrough.

“Think outside the box and solve problems. Think big and plan small and act now,” he stated.
The objectives of the Citizen Dialogue project workshop were to create a user friendly environment for the child, improve child upbringing environment and conduct needs identification for daycare centres.

During the workshop, Qabo and New Xade preschools shared their experiences and challenges that included inadequate teaching and learning resources, toilets not tailormade for children   and lack of parental support.ENDS