Monday, October 22, 2012

I received a late response from my contact in Africa and I wanted to share this with you

Dear Jen,
Apologies for the late response but I was busy with the students last week and it became a very full week indeed!
There is currently a difficulty with career-pathing within the Early Childhood Development sector. We have Level-4 and 5 Certificate courses and then there is quite a big jump to the Early Childhood Diploma.
We also have a Foundation Phase degree for Gr. R – Gr. 3 (national curriculum), but this doesn’t fit with our way of working which does not separate the Gr. R (6 yr old child) from the 4 and 5 yr. olds.
Our Diploma is a very rich and in-depth course which covers the 4 -6 yr. old but this is usually very difficult for our second language speakers.
Our government is currently looking at a Level-6 Diploma which focuses ONLY on the Gr. R (6yr old) year. We do not agree with this at all, and many other ECD organisations and educators are against this as well.
Personally I would like to be able to do an Early Childhood Waldorf degree training, and we are looking at this but it seems a long way off at this point.
In the meantime I attend workshops, courses and conferences whenever possible, to further my professional development.
Our government has also stipulated that further professional enrichment for teachers every year, is a mandatory requirement for further development (teachers get credits for these ongoing courses).
I hope this has been useful information for you, and I wish you well on your journey ahead.
Warm regards,
Robyn



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