Sina Nanto was a credit manager at Absa Bank. Sina’s ambition was to climb the corporate ladder and be an executive in the banking industry. However, her passion for early childhood development changed all that.
Last year, Sina left her cushy and well-paying job to start an Edu-care centre, Ma-Nanto Crèche, in Kagiso. She has invested all her pension money in the business and converted part of her house into an Edu-care centre.
Currently she’s looking for a sponsor to buy computers for her crèche. She wants computers that are loaded with the Edu-care software, which has English and Mathematics modules. The aim is to introduce kids to the computer world. “Catch them young,” is her motto.
Her concern is that kids don’t know how to read. So, she wants to develop their reading and cognitive skills. Hence she wants to buy computers with Maths and English modules, as mentioned above. Interestingly, she’s also offering swimming lessons for crèche and primary school kids. That’s progressive.
She is using her corporate skills to run the centre. And her long-term goal is to start a private school in the township. She has already developed a business plan for the private school and employed the services of a business coach. That’s how serious she is.
Her academic qualifications are related to the corporate world, the banking industry in particular. So, she wants to empower herself and have qualifications relevant to education. She has enrolled to study for an education degree next year.
According to Sina, running an Edu-care centre is totally different from managing a bank. For instance, when parents fail to pay for their kids at the crèche, there is no formal way of recouping the money. It’s not easy, but she’s enjoying every minute of it, she says.
