Africa-Press – Lesotho. The Network for Early Child Development of Lesotho (NECDoL) has awarded educational equipment to the Early Childhood Care and Development (ECCD) Centers and reception classes in an effort to celebrate
Global Action Week for Education (GAWE) under the theme: “Protect education in emergencies now”. GAWE is one of the major focal points for the education movement that provides every national and regional education
campaign with an opportunity to highlight one area of the education for all agenda, and make efforts to achieve change on the ground, with the added support of education campaigners and millions of members of the public worldwide
joining together for the same cause. At the ceremony that was held at Matlapaneng Primary School on Wednesday, NECDoL National Coordinator Shoeshoe Mofokeng said this school is one of the schools that NECDoL introduced the school
readiness initiative to, saying its goal is to secure a good start into primary education for vulnerable children, through access to quality reception classes.
Mofokeng stated that the purpose of picking for this celebration Matlapaneng Primary School is because it is one of the leading schools where the idea holds
its results. “Before the initiative, there were no playing spaces for children around many schools. NECDoL has channeled the teachers and the parents into exercising their creativities to make a livable
environment for children,” she said. Mofokeng noted that the initiative is supported by the founder of the program Roger Federer and the Ministry of Education (MoET) in line with Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4 .2 which anticipates
to ensure that all girls and boys have access to quality early childhood development, care and pre-primary education by 2030 to get them ready for primary education.
On the same occasion, local primary schools were given educational equipment such as tables, mats, paints and blocks. These are Matlapaneng Primary School, Matholeng Primary School, Phoqoane Primary,
Thaba-Tšoeu Primary School, Rakhoboko Primary School and Khasapane Primary School. Matlapaneng Primary School Principal ‘Majoalane Pholo said they learned more from the school readiness initiative
because they have realized the importance of the natural playground at the ECCD center. She said the availability of educational learning equipment at the
natural playground enable children to display more emotional literacy, better behavior and know how to socialize with others. “This has simplified work for us because
when the children proceed to grade 1, they will easily coordination with those ahead of them,” she said. Pholo further said the school lacks enough teaching space, saying they need buildings to accommodate the ECCD center
because now it is operating in the same room with reception. She also mentioned that the school has 1000 books that are not kept on the shelves because there is no library.
She stated that the existence of the library will later aid the developed ECCD and reception classes. “We experienced a miracle during the presence of school readiness initiative in the school because last year the roll out was 278 but now the number increased to more than 300 students,” she concluded.
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