It's vital to teach little ones maths, science and coding, says MEC

Gauteng education MEC Panyaza Lesufi says the ruling party is working towards migrating early childhood development centres (EDCs) to the national department of basic education, to ensure children are equipped with skills including literacy and numeracy in their formative years. 

In an interview on Newzroom Afrika, Lesufi was discussing the controversial grade 9 “exit” certificates which were announced by basic education minister Angie Motshekga in September. Lesufi supported the move, acknowledging that some pupils lacked basic numeracy and literacy skills by the time they reached this level of schooling.

“The ruling party is moving ECDs from being privately owned to make it part of the education system, because if you can't teach them to read at ECDs, you have missed them, and by the time they are up there, it's too late. So, the investment in ECDs is to say we can't allow our children to sing, eat, sleep and go home."

Lesufi said children need to be stimulated during the early childhood development phase through subjects such as coding, mathematics and science, if they are to be fully skilled by grade 9.

The department will issue two grade 9 certificates: the General Education Certificate (GEC) and General Occupational Certificate (GOC). In October, the department responded to public speculation that the certificates were an end to schooling, saying that they would actually give pupils access to government vocational colleges where they will receive skills training, TimesLIVE reported. 

Lesufi said the government would be investing in this migration programme as of 2020.