Early Childhood Development needs to be pioritised: Gwarube

Basic Education Minister Siviwe Gwarube says Early Childhood Development needs to be pioritised and integrated into basic education in order to improve the quality of education from the foundation phase.

Gwarube was speaking at an Education Business Breakfast in Johannesburg on Monday hosted by her department.

She decries that the country focuses on matric results and neglects the foundation phase which plays a critical role in bridging the inequality gap within the education sector.

Gwarube says young people have an appetite to learn but are met with social issues such as the lack of infrastructure, overcrowding and malnutrition.

“Education is a means to an end and the end is making sure that we are developing young people who will be able to leave one day ready for the world of work. In South Africa, 7 out of 10 young people don’t have work, and that number is growing at an alarming rate and the only way we are going to fix that is by growing the economy and we have got to have an education system that is producing quality young people that can walk into the world of work. The fact that there are children who drown in pit toilets 30 years into our democracy is something we can never condone, it is also about asbestos roofs and appropriate structures in our schools.”

Today is a very special day not only for me, but the Department and the more than 13 million learners in our country.

I have convened more than 100 business leaders from the private sector to outline my 5 key priorities of the 7th administration and engage in dialogue around… pic.twitter.com/B6MPqxti16

— Siviwe Gwarube (@Siviwe_G) November 11, 2024

Ban of pesticides

The Minister says pesticides will be banned in schools across the country. This intervention comes after organophosphate was identified as the cause of 6 children’s deaths in Naledi, Soweto, last month.

The group is among more than a dozen who died of foodborne illnesses.

The Education Department is also concerned about the current foodborne crisis in the country.

“The issue affects school. I am working on banning pesticides in schools. So it does not impact and affect school nutrition project.”

The Department of Health is still investigating the source of the organophosphate poisoning in Soweto as well as the various cases across the country.