The Minister for Education and Training Phineas Magagula says Government will continue to invest more in early childhood education as it is vital in boosting the country’s education sector.

The Minister’s speech was read on his behalf by the Chief Inspector of primary schools Phineas Masinga during the early childhood care and education awareness raising campaign held in Nhlangano.

He noted that one such investment is the introduction of a Diploma in early childhood education at the Ngwane Teacher Training College.

The teachers’ training is wholly funded by Government. The first intake to the diploma course was made in 2013. As they continue training, Government will in the meantime build Grade 0 classrooms in a number of primary schools.

“The work of preschool teachers is therefore very important, not just in making the children’s early years enjoyable and stimulating but also in laying the critical foundation for a lifetime learning and responsibility,” he remarked.

He noted that the early years of a child’s development are critical because they determine how the child will perform in their school years and in many ways shape the confidence with which they will face both problems and opportunities in life.

Magagula was, however, concerned that children from low-income families begin school on average of a year behind their peers in language development and pre-reading skills, and never catch up. He said this leads to a “high failure and dropout rate especially in primary school” because the children enter school not well prepared.

He singled out early childhood education as having long-term positive results that include low rates of teenage pregnancy and low crime rates.