MONTHANDAZO Masilela and the Moledi Early Childhood Centre will represent Limpopo in the upcoming South African Early Childhood Development (ECD) Awards to be held in Gauteng next year.
This comes after Masilela and the centre were named winners at the provincial ECD Awards, sponsored by Absa and held at Fusion Boutique Hotel on Friday.
Masilela was named the winner in the Best ECD Practitioner category while Moledi Centre was named the winner in the best ECD Centre category.
According to Absa sales manager, Olga Mkhari, the awards were meant to recognise excellence and dedication. She said Absa wanted to motivate early childhood practitioners to work hard in making sure that children were well looked after.
The awards are hosted in partnership between Absa, the South African Congress for Early Childhood Development, the National Development Agency, UNICEF and the national department of basic education.
Winners were awarded with certificates and stationery.
Last year’s provincial practitioner winner, Maphuthi Kgare, who also won second place at the national awards earlier this year, used the occasion to encourage her colleagues to work hard.
Limpopo’s MEC for education, Dikeledi Magadzi, said all the participants were winners, even though only one person could go home with the award.
She said her department was aware that practitioners were not well paid and that she was proud of them because they are doing all they can to develop young children.
