Education Projects
We soon realised that the needs of the community were broader than just health, and when we approached the community to ask what issues they would like addressed, education was the first area they mentioned.
We currently have four education projects:
We currently have four education projects:
Early Childhood Development Centres (preschools)
Although children under the age of 5 years are not legally required to attend school in South Africa, it is widely accepted that these early years are a crucial time for learning and preparing them for school. We re-established the Zithulele preschool on 15 April 2009, after requests from the community (previously, only a creche had been available in Zithulele and this had closed down a few years previously). This followed a great effort to renovate the rondavel (round house) building and a community cleanup of litter in the area.
The Zithulele Early Childhood Development Centre (ECDC) has grown and developed significantly over the years and now has three trained teachers and accommodates up to 40 children per year, from ages 3-5. It is now a registered Montessori centre with the South African Montessori Association, and uses the Montessori method of education. Following requests from the nearby Upper Lubanzi community, we took over management of the Khanyisa ECDC, that is registered with the South Africa Department of Social Development. It can also accommodate 30 children and has a trained teacher and a teaching assistant. We hope to expand this school in the near future, as currently the space is too small to accommodate the number of children who would like to attend.
The objective of our ECDC support is to provide a safe and stimulating environment where young children can grow and learn through exploration, and develop an everlasting love for learning. We aim to send these children to Grade R with the foundations of spiritual, intellectual, physical and emotional development in place.
We provide monthly training sessions to all ECD practitioners, caregivers and community workers from the surrounding areas and neighbouring NGO's. These workshops are presented in isiXhosa and attended by approximately 26 participants, reaching 25 schools in and around the greater Zithulele area.
The Zithulele Early Childhood Development Centre (ECDC) has grown and developed significantly over the years and now has three trained teachers and accommodates up to 40 children per year, from ages 3-5. It is now a registered Montessori centre with the South African Montessori Association, and uses the Montessori method of education. Following requests from the nearby Upper Lubanzi community, we took over management of the Khanyisa ECDC, that is registered with the South Africa Department of Social Development. It can also accommodate 30 children and has a trained teacher and a teaching assistant. We hope to expand this school in the near future, as currently the space is too small to accommodate the number of children who would like to attend.
The objective of our ECDC support is to provide a safe and stimulating environment where young children can grow and learn through exploration, and develop an everlasting love for learning. We aim to send these children to Grade R with the foundations of spiritual, intellectual, physical and emotional development in place.
We provide monthly training sessions to all ECD practitioners, caregivers and community workers from the surrounding areas and neighbouring NGO's. These workshops are presented in isiXhosa and attended by approximately 26 participants, reaching 25 schools in and around the greater Zithulele area.
ECD in the Home
Many caregivers don’t understand the importance of early childhood development (ECD); some feel that their child's education is the responsibility of teachers and schools, while others believe they are not equipped with the experience or resources to support their child in this way. The long term goal of changing the mind-set and opinions of parents towards the value and role of ECD and their role as the child’s first teacher, remains the focus of our ECD in the Home programme.
The number of parents and children engaged or workshops conducted are easy to count, but trying to quantify the success or real impact of a programme like this is difficult. However, the longer we keep running this programme, the more obvious the impact is becoming and we are continuing to see the ripple effect spread. Caregivers and parents are engaging with our community workers in the field, asking when will we be coming to their area and when will they get visited. ECD in the Home has proved to be an effective link between ECD Centres and the community at large. When visiting homes, the ECD Community Workers can inquire as to why parents/caregivers are not sending their children to ECD centres, while also taking the time to make sure the truth about ECD is heard and counter any myths or misunderstandings about early education.
The number of parents and children engaged or workshops conducted are easy to count, but trying to quantify the success or real impact of a programme like this is difficult. However, the longer we keep running this programme, the more obvious the impact is becoming and we are continuing to see the ripple effect spread. Caregivers and parents are engaging with our community workers in the field, asking when will we be coming to their area and when will they get visited. ECD in the Home has proved to be an effective link between ECD Centres and the community at large. When visiting homes, the ECD Community Workers can inquire as to why parents/caregivers are not sending their children to ECD centres, while also taking the time to make sure the truth about ECD is heard and counter any myths or misunderstandings about early education.
Zithulele Library
Zithulele Community Library opened its doors on 18th October 2011 with a celebration attended by over 200 local people! The library continues to be a source of information for learners from surrounding schools, who often need to do research for school projects, and have very few options for gathering information.
We recently conducted a survey with the teachers in the local schools about which textbooks they would like to have in the library. This helped us to order textbooks that will be useful to many. The library’s catalogue system has also been upgraded to the Dewey system in order to categorise the books properly and we categorised over 2000 books. This move was made so that children will be familiar with library catalogue systems if and when they have the opportunity to access libraries elsewhere in the future.
During 2017, a Library festival was held, where 35 students from the surrounding primary schools were invited to take part in a story writing competition. The storybooks they made were displayed and are part of the fiction area in the library where anyone can take them out like a real library book. This created a sense of ownership of the library among students. Library members continue to take out books to read, though there isn’t a significant reading culture amongst adults in Zithulele, meaning that our member numbers and those taking out books are still not as high as we would like. We trust that through focussing on the youth, they will continue with the reading culture as future adults.
We recently conducted a survey with the teachers in the local schools about which textbooks they would like to have in the library. This helped us to order textbooks that will be useful to many. The library’s catalogue system has also been upgraded to the Dewey system in order to categorise the books properly and we categorised over 2000 books. This move was made so that children will be familiar with library catalogue systems if and when they have the opportunity to access libraries elsewhere in the future.
During 2017, a Library festival was held, where 35 students from the surrounding primary schools were invited to take part in a story writing competition. The storybooks they made were displayed and are part of the fiction area in the library where anyone can take them out like a real library book. This created a sense of ownership of the library among students. Library members continue to take out books to read, though there isn’t a significant reading culture amongst adults in Zithulele, meaning that our member numbers and those taking out books are still not as high as we would like. We trust that through focussing on the youth, they will continue with the reading culture as future adults.
Zithudlala
The aim of the Zithudlala (Learning through play) aftercare programme and holiday clubs, is to fill the basic need for children to have a space where they can feel secure. When children feel safe, they can thrive. Research into Early Childhood Development (ECD) has shown that young children learn best by having fun. However, Zithudlala is also about promoting play as an end in itself for children whose difficult living conditions and limited access to resources may mean that they rarely get to enjoy this basic human right*.
For ECD in Zithulele, learning through fun has meant identifying what fun learning activities could be implemented given our resources and opportunities. We have partnered with THANDA aftercare programme, who have provided training and curriculum ideas on how to use play as a means to stimulate children's educational growth and development. The THANDA curriculum also includes how to help children deal with their emotions. We have combined this curriculum with other indoor and outside games and activities, as well as a weekly reading club hosted by Axium Education’s community readers, to reach over 350 learners over the year.
* Did you know? The right of children to engage in play activities was included as a human right in the UN Convention on the Rights of a Child in 1989.
For ECD in Zithulele, learning through fun has meant identifying what fun learning activities could be implemented given our resources and opportunities. We have partnered with THANDA aftercare programme, who have provided training and curriculum ideas on how to use play as a means to stimulate children's educational growth and development. The THANDA curriculum also includes how to help children deal with their emotions. We have combined this curriculum with other indoor and outside games and activities, as well as a weekly reading club hosted by Axium Education’s community readers, to reach over 350 learners over the year.
* Did you know? The right of children to engage in play activities was included as a human right in the UN Convention on the Rights of a Child in 1989.
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