07 Sep 2018

The majority of day care centres operating in Francistown are not following set guidelines, says principal home economics officer at the city of Francistown council Ms Nattash Maphane.

Speaking at a day care managers workshop in Francistown on Tuesday, Ms Maphane noted that an inspection was carried out last month where it was discovered that about 80 per cent of teachers at day care centres in Francistown did not have permission to teach.

She also said a number of teachers and cooks did not have medical fitness certificates and that the school menus were not balanced.

Ms Maphane said the inspection also revealed that lesson plans were not up to date and that some teachers did not bring their lesson plans to class. She also noted that there was a shortage of teachers, especially assistant teachers, in the majority of day care centres.

“Most centres have approved structural plans but they were not implementing what has been approved,” she said, adding that most centres had combined sick bays with either offices or classrooms. She said other centres had issues of overcrowding as they exceeded the approved enrollment.

For her part, chief social and community development officer Ms Membe Makonya stated that the workshop was aimed at addressing issues related to early childhood as well as looking into operations of day care centres and their licenses in the city.

Ms Makonya also noted that the other objective of the two-day workshop was to revive the day care centre association in Francistown, adding that it was important to have a committee that oversaw all day care centres so as to avoid establishment of unlicensed centres.

Earlier in his welcome remarks, Francistown city council deputy town clerk Mr Lawrence Mokotedi explained that unlicensed day care centres put the lives of children at risk.

He further noted that it was upon the city council to close establishments that posed danger to the lives of children.

Mr Mokotedi urged stakeholders to participate in the interactive workshop in order to address issues and share ideas and experiences, adding that their participation would assist in mapping a way forward on how to improve day care centre services. ENDS