Need & Solution

THE NEED: Golang Creche is a pre-primary school of about 30 children aged 3 to 8 years old.  It is located within the Emthonjeni Community Center in Zandspruit, about 10 minutes away from the ALA campus.  Most of the kids live in the nearby squatters camp, where unemployment and school drop-out rates are high.  The program is a daycare center and focuses on early childhood education following the “Play with a Purpose” curriculum to give kids a head start in life.   The crèche has a child-centered approach to teaching.  The children are accustomed to a routine, are well-behaved, and have a good grasp of English.

Recently, Golang started an after-school program for children attending primary school and asked our team to also help the Grade 1 students in addition to the pre-primary kids.  The first interaction we had with the children, we asked them to share their names, ages, and what they wanted to be when they grew up.  Responses included “a stealer” and “I want to hijack a car.”  We also observed behavioral concerns such as a lack of discipline, fighting, sleeping, calling each other names, throwing sticks, etc.  The teacher explained that the students are also in need of math and literacy help and they are at varying ability levels.  There is no classroom or materials, but there is a library of children’s books.

OUR SOLUTION:

Our team is visiting Golang weekly for 90 minutes (3:00-4:30PM) on Wednesdays.  For the first 30 minutes, we lead interactive, child-centered lessons to reinforce the themes of the Play with a Purpose curriculum.  Sample themes are Birds, Reptiles, and Numeracy.  Our lesson routine includes songs, games, and stories that link to the themes and enable the kids to apply their knowledge.

We are currently identifying needs of the Grade 1 students and testing potential solutions to pilot this term.  The Grade 1 students need motivation for learning, a routine, behavior guidelines, exposure to positive role models, and bridging gaps in foundational math and literacy skills.  We are testing different approaches such as songs, games, small groupwork, stories about values, and phonics for 45 minutes each week to determine how we can effectively address the needs.  To maximize our capacity, we repeat some of the activities we do at the crèche.