The Department of Basic Education revealed that over 7,000 Grade R educators are not qualified for their positions in a recent parliamentary committee meeting. This revelation has placed greater focus on the introduction of Grade R, given that the grade is made compulsory by the Basic Education Laws Amendment (BELA) Act, which is scheduled to be introduced next year.
Basil Manuel, Executive Director of NAPTOSA, has applauded the news, arguing that the nascent sector is expected to have uneducated individuals, especially since the sector previously was informal.
“Remembering that Grade R has been a part of the informal sector, and the people that are generally at these ECD (Early Childhood Development) centres have been the ladies who decide to have a little group together, and many of them would not have had formal qualifications. So, I am surprised that the unqualified only number 7000; if I had to guess, I would have thought it would be much higher,” stated Manuel.
Manuel believes that the sector will face significant inefficiencies, especially regarding qualifications. He argues that it’s essential to properly skill the current workforce, but even more important is the need to retain unqualified workers who have accumulated years of experience in the field.
“What about that person who spent 30 years there and who is not of an age where they feel they can study, or maybe they are, but they don’t have matric? What are we going to do with them? This is both a moral dilemma and an educational one. Educationally, we can say everybody must be qualified, and NAPTOSA, of course, supports that, but on a humane level, we are saying we cannot just throw those people out,” adds Manuel.
Listen to the full interview here:
