Improving Quality of Early Childhood with Starting Chance Fund: From Joyce Matyi and Bulelani Futshane

The quality of early childhood education is something that many individuals seem to undermine. There is much conversation surrounding struggling students at older ages (i.e high school) and how they have trouble catching up to other students. But the problems often starts when children are younger. With a faulty foundation it can be hard to get a kid back on track. There are many factors that are considered relevant to a safe education. According to the world bank the five pillars to eradicate learning poverty included a need for learners to be engaged, for teachers to facilitate learning, for learning resources to be adequate and diverse, for schools to be safe and inclusive, and for systems to be well-managed. July is the month of Mandela Day. Considering such, the organization Starting Chance is looking to tie these motivations with their celebrations for this month. 

Starting Chance is a non-profit organization that is focused on improving the quality of early childhood education (ECD), including ages 0-6, in order to give them a "starting chance" on their journey. They deploy well-experienced and qualified fieldworkers to provide in-service coaching. They also have initiatives to reconstruct, upgrade, and equip facilities to provide safe environments for children to learn. This month, Starting Chance is hosting workshops for their Mandela Month drive in Mfuleni to empower ECD amongst principles, practitioners, and parents separately. They will be hosting their ECD Open Day Event on the 27th of July where everyone will learn about the impact of quality early childhood education.

Joyce Matyi and  Bulelani Futshane are program coordinators that have been helping to plan said events and took the time to come and talk to us. We talked about the level of planning that has gone into these events, what their motivation is with working for Starting Chance, and what resources the public can access to bring their child quality education. They made sure to mention the disparities present in education in the community of Fuleni, the need for parents to be just as involved and helpful as practitioners and principles, as well as how important balance and commitment is through it all. 

Come to Starting Chance Fund's Early Childhood Education Open Day Event on July 27th and find out more on their website here. 

Watch the interview on Youtube.