The Western Cape Education Department is confident it will reach the goal of universal access to Grade R by 2014.
|||Cape Town - About 88 percent of public primary schools in the province now offer Grade R and the Western Cape Education Department (WCED) is confident it will reach the goal of universal access to the grade by 2014.
WCED spokesperson Paddy Attwell said 1 288 schools (932 public schools and 356 private pre-schools) in the province offer Grade R.
He said a further 50 schools would have to start offering Grade R to ensure universal access by next year.
“The department is confident that we will reach the goal of universal access to Grade R, as defined in White Paper 5, the national policy document on early childhood development.
“According to the policy, education authorities will be satisfied that we have achieved universal access when at least 80 percent of public primary schools offer Grade R, with independent pre-schools largely catering for the balance,” said Attwell.
He said the department had built more than 290 Grade R classrooms over the past four years. A total of 74 779 children were in Grade R this year and the department hoped that 76 000 children would be receiving a Grade R education in 2013.
Attwell said schools had employed 2 284 Grade R practitioners, while the department had employed 192 Grade R teachers. “The department changed its model for financing Grade R about 12 years ago, from employing permanent teachers to subsidising schools per Grade R learner. This made it much easier to improve access to Grade R in poor communities.”
According to the South African Schools Act, parents may enrol five-year-olds who will be turning six (during the year) in Grade R.
Attwell said the department encouraged parents to keep their children in Grade R for a second year if they were younger than the age norm for Grade 1. - Cape Argus