The DA supports and amplifies the calls made by the Early Childhood Development (ECD) sector to urgently vaccinate ECD employees across the country.
ECD practitioners are educators too and should be respected and treated as such. The ECD migration from the Department of Social Development (DSD) to the Department of Basic Education (DBE) highlights and supports this fact as well as the critical role they play in preparing children for Grade R.
The call for vaccinations is not only about ECD employees, but about the safety of the children they teach and care for. Without a strong, healthy ECD workforce — who would fill this role as parents must be at work and/or actively seek employment?
The many ECD practitioners, principals and center managers who spoke their truth in front of the Social Development Committee at the Children’s Amendment Bill public hearings in Mpumalanga and Limpopo earlier this month were heart wrenching testimonies of a sector long forgotten by DSD.
Quoting an ECD practitioner from Mpumalanga “I started working in the ECD in 2009, if I should die, I die like a dog” and another: “Help us restore our dignity because we are teachers, but don’t feel like teachers”.
It is without a doubt these ECD practitioners, who are predominately women, care about one thing and one thing only – the wellbeing of the children in their care and protection.
The Minister of Social Development, Lindiwe Zulu, who has a seat on the NCC, must demand that ECD employees be allowed to commence registration on the Electronic Vaccination Data System (EVDS).
Furthermore, it creates a window of opportunity for DSD to cross reference ECD registrations against the Vangasali database to identify the many ECDs in rural and township communities uncounted for.
The vaccination of ECD employees is in the best interest of the child, the future of South Africa.
The Democratic Alliance calls on Minister Lindiwe Zulu to act with expedience before there is no ECD sector left to migrant to DBE in April 2022.