R12,5 million for children’s future
Blouberg Municipality has set aside R12,5 million in this year's budget for the construction of seven pre-schools.
LIMPOPO – This announcement was made by Mayor, Solomon Pheedi during a sod-turning ceremony last Friday whereby the first three of seven pre-schools are to be built in Brana village.
Pheedi added that this will increase and develop the level of Early Childhood Development (ECD) standards within the municipality.
He says Brana, Mosehleng and Sadu pre-schools are among other projects that have been prioritised as per 2016/17 Integrated Development Planning (IDP).
“The municipality realised there are no pre-schools where children can play and learn while they are still young. We encourage parents to take their children to the ECD centres and make good use of the facilities so their children can be better equipped with the knowledge and skills to excel in life,” Pheedi said.
“A community which has no education is the same as a community which has no eyes. Through these ECD centres we want to see our children learn and grow with open minds.”
He added since unemployment remains a serious challenge in the municipality, these projects will serve as job creation opportunities for the community.
“As a municipality, we want to ensure our people receive their services as we promised. Education still remains our priority and through it we believe we can build a better municipality and province,” Pheedi added.
He explained they want to see children from their municipality competing on the same level of development as those from townships and areas around towns or developed areas.
“We believe when a child attends a pre-school, they learn many new things which can help them develop both physically and mentally. However, finance remains a challenge which will make the projects take slightly longer to complete but we strongly believe that in this five-year term everything will be done,” he continued.
A resident in Brana village, Rachel Pholo, said she believes these projects will not only develop the education standard in their village but will also bring civilization within their community.
“We have struggled for several years now, however we are happy today that our children will have a place to learn and play without travelling long distances to access learning facilities,” Pholo said.
Khompho Trading constructor, Boyd Ndlovu, promised the municipality that a proper job will be done and that everything will be completed in the given time frame.
