This project is enabling the Centre for Early Childhood Development to provide ten two-day on-site training sessions for teachers at registered, under-resourced Early Childhood Development centres in Delft, Philippi East, Brown’s Farm, Crossroads and Weltevreden Valley, with ongoing support for three months. The training focuses on learning activities, the daily educational plan, creating educational resources and using those resources with children.

The project received an instalment of R27 500 from Make Christmas Matter on 7 March 2007. The full cost of the project is R66 380, with R38 440 still to be received.

Implementation of project activities to date

A needs assessment was conducted at each of the 12 ECD centres and teachers were interviewed to ensure that their needs would be addressed in the training programme. A list of the names of the centres are provided below, with the number of children attending each centre.

NAME OF THE FACILITY	ADDRESS	NUMBER OF CHILDREN
Khanya Educare	33 Caledon Road Leiden Delft	35
Khayalethu Educare	4601 Lillian Ngoyi Street Samora Machel	18 (babies)
Imizamo Yethu Educare	64 Tsine Street Vukuzenzele Philippi	78
Luntu Educare	12567 Ngqwangi Drive Lower Crossroads	82
Masincedane Educare	3893 Block 9 Lower Crossroads	85
Nomonde Educare	2727 Sonwabile Drive Old Crossroads	70
Sobambisana Educare	Sweet Home Farm Phillipi	75
Siseko Educare	134 Welutchia Street Delft	38
Sinethemba Educare	951 Ingqabe Crescent Old Crossroads	55
Umzi Educare	14 Ebbehout Street Delft	50
Sunrise Educare Centre	6021 Sikhona Street	48
Sunrise Educare Centre	12448 Mkhombe Street	45

The needs assessments were done during the month of February 2007. The results of the assessment indicated that the ECD centres are in need of infrastructure upgrade, educational equipment and intensive teacher training.

Programme planning has been done based on the needs assessment completed at the 12 ECD centres. The training programme covers the following content:

• daily educational activities
• the use of educational resources
• facilitating a creative playroom environment.

The necessary materials needed for the training were purchased, and the orientation with teachers took place in April 2007. This was to bring the teachers on board about the project outcomes and plans for improving the quality at the 12 selected ECD centres.

Training has taken place at six early childhood development centres. The names of these facilities, the number of teachers trained, the number of children reached and the date that the training took place are outlined in the table below.

Name of facility	Number of teachers trained	Number of children reached	Dates training took place
Imizamo Yethu Educare	2	78	8-9 May 2007
Sobambisana Educare	5	75	10-11 May 2007
Sunrise Educare Centre (Sikhona Street)	3	48	15-16 May 2007
Sunrise Educare Centre (Mkhombe Street)	2	45	17-18 May 2007
Masincedane Educare	3	85	21 May 2007 13 June 2007*
Luntu Educare	3	82	22 May 2007 12 June 2007
TOTAL	18	413

*The trainer was ill and therefore this training date has been postponed.

Training will be undertaken at the remaining six centres according to the following framework:

Name of facility	Number of teachers to be trained	Number of children to be reached	Dates training will take place
Sinethemba Educare	3	55	26-27 June 2007
Nomonde Educare	3	70	28-29 June 2007
Siseko Educare	3	38	28-29 August 2007
Khayalethu Educare	2	18	30-31 August 2007
Khanya Educare	3	35	25-26 September 2007
Umzi Educare	3	50	27-28 September 2007
TOTAL	17	266

Project plans have been changed by the addition of 4 ECD centres to make up the target number of teachers to be trained and children to be reached. In the coming months we will also work with the following ECD centres, teachers and children:

Name of facility	Number of teachers to be trained	Number of children to be reached	Dates training will take place
Isibane Sethu Enrichment Centre	6	87	5-6 September 2007
Ibhongu Lethu Enrichment Centre	6	74	12-13 September 2007
Joyce Ndisa Enrichment Centre	7	98	3-4 October 2007
Uvuyolwethu Enrichment Centre	7	70	10-11 October 2007
TOTAL	26	329

Project expenditure to date

The following costs have already been incurred:

Expenditure	Amount
Needs Assessment	2 500
Programme Planning	-
Training Materials	25 000
ECD Classroom Improvement Training	10 500
Learners Refreshments	3 000
Evaluation Reporting	2 500
Total expenditure to date	43 500

Beneficiaries of the project

To date 18 teachers have received training, which can be confirmed by the trainer’s schedule. These teachers are now able to develop quality daily educational activities for children, make effective and efficient use of educational resources and facilitate a creative playroom environment.

This all serves to benefit the 1008 children who are attending these ECD centres. With better learning materials on offer and trained teachers, these children are now exposed to quality early learning opportunities, which helps ensures their holistic development.

The knowledge and skills that these teachers have gained will be used to train other teachers, which means that there will be a further number of indirect beneficiaries from this project, namely teachers and children. When the balance of training has been completed, a total of 61 teachers and 1008 children will have been reached directly.

Challenges faced in implementation

The number of children enrolled at ECD centres fluctuates and therefore only 679 and not 800 children will be reached based on the original project plan. Because of this we have amended the plan as set out above to now reach 16 ECD centres, 61 teachers and 1 008 children.

Monitoring and evaluation

The project will be monitored throughout its duration by the project manager and the trainer. Since training began on 8 May 2007 the trainer has handed in reports to the project manager with her evaluation as regards the completed training at the ECD centres. Evaluation is therefore continuous.

Quality assurance will be undertaken by an independent consultant, Ms Gill Naeser, while quality control is the responsibility of the CECD training manager, Ms Bonita Daniels. Once the training activities have been completed an external evaluator will be assessing the outcomes and impacts of this project.

The evaluation reports from the trainer indicate that the training is going well and that the teachers are enthusiastic learners who are committed to ensuring that they offer the children in their care quality early learning opportunities. The trainer has also, on monitoring visits to the sites where training has been completed, noted that teachers are implementing what they have learnt, using resources and materials to ensure interesting activities and a creative playroom for the children.

Feedback from the teachers suggests that they are excited about their newly acquired skills and what these can mean for the children. They feel that their teaching has improved as they have learnt creative ways to implement learning activities that previously were not in place.

Conclusions

During the need assessments carried out, the urgency of equipping practitioners with skills and resources to improve the quality of their respective ECD centres was made very clear. The practitioners were very excited to begin training and are looking forward to creating stimulating learning environments at their centres.

The Centre for Early Childhood Development will offer follow up mentoring and support to the ECD centres that are being trained on this programme. The ECD Support Services, practitioners, parents and community members have easy access to a number of resources and any information that will assist them with ensuring that they offer quality early learning opportunities to young children.

All those who gave so generously for items required for the project can rest assured that they are giving to those in greatest need and are brightening the lives of hundreds of children. They are also empowering practitioners who are learning new and innovative ways to ensure the holistic development of the children in their care.

Quality early childhood development is essential in helping children reach their full potential in life. By supporting this project, contributors are supporting the need for quality education for children who need it most.