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"content": "actually where the focus is. Apart from teachers putting in their best, parents ensure that the cultural capital of the family is actually done. You will find parents and teachers reading story books and trying to make sure that the child gets on the right track from the word go. This is because that cultural capital is so key that it can actually be maintained in the system, so that the child can actually grow knowing what is expected of them and feeling that they have the adequate guide for them to be able to do that. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, pre-primary or ECD is not an easy business at all, like any other training. It is an expensive venture, if you think of the sort of material that has to go into it. So, it has to be well thought out. From the word go, you have to think about what training materials we are going to use and how we will get those training materials and determine who does the supervision of teaching schemes, for example, for pre- primary teachers. When secondary school teachers are being trained, for example, they have what they call the teaching practice session where they are actually evaluated on the basis of what they are doing before they are sent out to actually do the job. I suspect that this is not being done for pre-primary education. Therefore, you will find people looking for their own innovative ways of getting their work done. In fact, this has become a lucrative business. If you have a house somewhere in the neighbourhood and can collect all the children there, you could easily start a school. Nobody is going to stop and ask you what it is that you are doing. Therefore, we begin to push children not only just to expand their horizon in terms of their mindset, but to push them into getting grades “A” and “B”, and kill their motivation for learning so early on in the day. These become money driven ventures, that once we do well and our children are able to get grades “As”, we will have other parents coming into the school and, therefore, become very rich. It is really a sad state of affairs. How is that done? How is that synthesized? The learning theory has been expounded by various scholars, especially by Bandura, who posited that the key nexus of learning really comes from imitation; you imitate those who you see as your role models. That is why you will hear parents telling you that wherever the children have been taught, when they come home, they tell them the correct thing. Therefore, woe unto you if the teacher made a mistake even in pronunciation, because the child will always say that the teacher is right. That is how we role model and that is how we look up to teachers to such a great extent. So, you can imagine if those who are in place to actually help these young minds to grow are not really prepared for it, then we have big problems. We have had serious problems of indiscipline, including defilement by the same teachers in those specific schools. I think it is a high time in this country that we have real policies as far as pre- primary education is concerned with regard to preparing teachers and the sort of institutions needed. Unfortunately, I think up to now, ECD education is not really regulated. The age for joining class one is six years old and I think you can easily start off with primary education and move on with secondary education. So, it seems to be neither here nor there. For those who find the importance of taking their children for pre-primary education, they do so, but those who do not can easily just get them to go through. The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate"
}