SITE VISIT - Consultative Group on Early Childhood Care and ...
SITE VISIT - Consultative Group on Early Childhood Care and ...
SITE VISIT - Consultative Group on Early Childhood Care and ...
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community radio stati<strong>on</strong>s are under c<strong>on</strong>siderati<strong>on</strong>, but temporary commercial licenses might be<br />
granted near the end of the year.<br />
Paul Liebetrau of the SABC spoke at the February LearnTech workshop <strong>and</strong> was not initially<br />
optimistic in resp<strong>on</strong>se to ECD <strong>and</strong> media workers inquiries into possible SABC distributi<strong>on</strong> of<br />
ECD programming. Currently, he has expressed renewed interest <strong>and</strong> is exploring the<br />
possibilities of opening up the SABC to ECD programs of high quality.<br />
Through initiative <strong>and</strong> persistence, some ECD workers at the workshop have met with success as<br />
follows:<br />
35<br />
•Ntataise <strong>and</strong> Kgutlo Tharo, two ECD organisati<strong>on</strong>s in the Free State, are hosting<br />
programs for parents with young children <strong>on</strong> the Sesotho Sterio women's<br />
programs every sec<strong>on</strong>d Tuesday afterno<strong>on</strong>.<br />
•Radio Ciskei has been supportive of ratio outreach to young children <strong>and</strong> parents;<br />
it provides the Community Child Development Centre of East L<strong>on</strong>d<strong>on</strong> with an<br />
hour every Wednesday in the community program slot. Research shows that<br />
people are listening <strong>and</strong> learning from the program. At least <strong>on</strong>e pre-school has<br />
opened as a result of the broadcasts, <strong>and</strong> this school approached CCDC for<br />
training its teachers.<br />
•Workshop attendee Dudu Majola reported that trainers at TREE Pietermaritzburg<br />
approached the new community radio stati<strong>on</strong>, Radio Maritzburg when it went <strong>on</strong><br />
the air in March l995 <strong>and</strong> have agreed to a daily 15-minute program aimed at<br />
children <strong>and</strong> parents.<br />
•Thoko Khoza of Mashambane ELC, a member of the Small Beginnings ECD<br />
groups has been broadcasting <strong>on</strong> Radio Swazi since late l993. She broadcasts in<br />
Zulu, which is close to Siswati, for 15 minutes every M<strong>on</strong>day afterno<strong>on</strong> at 14h00<br />
<strong>on</strong> the women's program, about matters that c<strong>on</strong>cern mothers, childminders <strong>and</strong><br />
educare workers.<br />
Apart from these notable examples, very few crèches make use of educati<strong>on</strong>al media to date.<br />
However, there is great potential, particularly am<strong>on</strong>g the community radio systems. Research<br />
shows significant improvements in school readiness for crèche children who were exposed to just<br />
40 minutes of educati<strong>on</strong>al televisi<strong>on</strong> per day. The majority of black pre-school facilities are staff<br />
by untrained pers<strong>on</strong>nel <strong>and</strong> South Africans interviewed suggested that utilizing pre-school<br />
educati<strong>on</strong>al programs <strong>on</strong> radio <strong>and</strong> televisi<strong>on</strong> in crèches could make a significant improvement<br />
<strong>and</strong> could support the hard work of the trainers <strong>and</strong> caregivers.<br />
The majority of black children attend crèche or nursery while their parents work, so most of them<br />
are away from home for a full day. If pre-school educati<strong>on</strong> programs are not broadcast in the<br />
crèche or nursery than the majority of children may have virtually no access to these programs<br />
since few of them are broadcast <strong>on</strong> weekends. It was also expressed that scheduling pre-school<br />
programs <strong>on</strong> the weekend should also be c<strong>on</strong>sidered.