Crystal MG Trading and Projects is helping 200 children at the Isiphosethu and  C-Unity early childhood development (ECD) centres in KwaMhlanga, Mpumalanga, by teaching them how to use tablets as learning tools.

The company holds two sessions a week at each ECD centre to teach the children how to write, calculate, draw and paint using a tablet. Each session lasts an hour and is conducted by the company’s four-member team.

Mike Skosana (32), the co-owner of the company, says he and his business partner, Gugu Masilela (30), use online apps to deliver lessons.

“Our goal is to ensure that children are comfortable using computers and similar technologies by the time they go to school. The children’s literacy, maths and drawing skills improve quickly, because they enjoy using the gadgets,” says Skosana.

The principal of Isiphosethu ECD centre, Fikile Mthimunye, says the initiative has helped improve the children’s skills.

"They can write their names now and are more interested and attentive in class because they get to play with interactive tools.”

The lessons, delivered through the RV AppStudios apps, are in line with the ECD curriculum. “Our lessons do not replace what is in the curriculum. They are done in accordance with the syllabus so that the children have the same knowledge as children in the same grades,” says Skosana.

The company only works with ECD centres that are formally registered with the Department of Social Development.

The initiative was made possible by the National Youth Development Agency, which supplied R50 000 in grant funding to Crystal MG Trading and Projects.   

For more information on services offered by the NYDA, call 0800 52 52 52 or go to www.nyda.gov.za

-This article was originally published in the GCIS Vuk'uzenzele.