Evangeline Nicanor 

KEETMANSHOOP - The Church Alliance for Orphans, in collaboration with the Roger Federer Foundation (RFF), recently hosted school readiness training for principals, heads of department and edu-carers of primary schools and early childhood development centres in the //Kharas region.

This is a means to prepare pre-primary school children properly for their next educational journey.

Josephine Shikusho, project coordinator of the school readiness initiative (SRI), said the aim of the training is for schools to have a deeper understanding of it. 

“The programme is a nationwide initiative that aims to ensure a good start in primary education for children from three to eight years through improved teaching and learning in 2 500 institutions with pre-primary classes,” she noted. 

Shikusho added that it also focuses on the assessment of learners on the pre-primary level of education, and in addition equips educators and edu-carers as a means to assist learners to have a smooth transition from the pre-primary to lower primary phase.

Geduld Primary School principal Juliana Rooi regards the SRI project as essential, which can address the challenge of learners who are struggling when entering grade one as a result of not being properly prepared during their pre-primary education phase. 

“Children are just taught the basics before they are commencing with their grade one primary education phase, where they normally struggle with reading properly, in order to proceed to grade two the next year,” she elucidated. 

Rooi said from experience, she has observed that through play, children could learn a lot and gain more confidence in expressing themselves. 

“So, the fact that this workshop will in future provide us with tablets with study guides which can assist teachers and edu-carers with toy-making, for example, is an important intervention as not all schools and ECD centres are privileged to have such devices, ” she added. 

“Research by Unicef shows that there is a high drop-out rate of learners at the lower primary education phase. Hence, RFF identified the need to fund and meet the government halfway in addressing the challenge,” said Cafo director Jacky Hoff. 

It is thus of importance to prepare children well for school, and enhance their school readiness. “This means that their health, learning ability as well as psychosocial well-being should be on track before they enter primary school,” she noted.

Hoff said the transition from pre-primary to primary school is highly sensitive and full of challenges for children. If inadequately prepared for primary school or badly embedded in their new environment, they will likely not develop properly and drop out of school.

In-depth training is set to take place in January 2023 for pre-primary teachers as well as edu-carers of ECD centres to enable them to assess the children. The project, which started in 2018, is jointly funded by the Roger Federer Foundation and Botnar Foundation, and is being implemented by LifeLine/Childline, Cafo and Women’s Action for Development.

Evangeline Nicanor is an information officer at MICT
//Kharas.