Remarkable parents due to receive awards

Victor Mecoamere

Victor Mecoamere

A special crop of parents are due to be honoured nationwide through the 2008 Absa and Sowetan Early Childhood Development (ECD) Awards in Gauteng in June.

The other organising partners of the awards include the Aggrey Klaaste Nation Building Foundation, South African Congress for Early Childhood Development (ECD), Department of Education (DoE), Office of the Rights of the Child in the Presidency and SABC Education.

ECD practitioners are entrusted with sculpting and moulding our children into well-rounded young human beings, who are ready to embrace formal schooling with a solid foundation and an eager passion.

The first nine years of a child's life are, arguably, fundamentally essential to their development as human beings.

So well-structured early childhood development is so vital that the success of a nation is often dictated by the success of its ECD programmes

Provincial and national finalists and winners stand to win in several categories:

lECD practitioner of the year;

lHome-based care centre of the year;

lCommunity-based care centre of the year;

lResource and training centre of the year.

Provincial eliminations will take place at the following venues on the stipulated dates:

lDurban, KwaZulu-Natal, on May 15;

lBloemfontein, Free State, on May 22;

lMafikeng, North West, on May 23;

lKimberley, Northern Cape, on May 29;

lEast London, Eastern Cape, on June 5;

lCape Town, Western Cape, on June 6;

lPolokwane, Limpopo, on June 13;

lJohannesburg, Gauteng, on June 19;

lNelspruit, Mpumalanga, on June 20.