Abstract
D.Ed (Educational Psychology)
It is a well known fact that, especially in the developed and industrialised countries the child can not but attain adulthood and independence via the school and school learning.
The child's progress at school depends largely on his readiness to learn. Because it is no longer acceptable for the school to receive school beginners with a take-it
or leave-it attitude and practice, the Transvaal Education Department adopted the policy that all school beginners be subjected to a school readiness programme to ensure that
they will in fact profit from formal learning. Because application of the prescribed procedures which underlies all these programmes had not yet been investigated empirically, an intensive evaluation was conducted in 1977 at the RAU. The findings indicated certain deficiencies in the existing programme. It appeared, for example, that
differentiation was not applied sufficiently and that more emphasis should be laid on certain aspects of cognitive development. An attempt was therefore made in this study
to redesign the existing programme. Firstly it was necessary to arrive at a pedagogical view of school entrance which implied a close examination of the school beginner's development and learning, whi~h also emphasised the importance of the teacher's becoming acquainted with the child's level op development on school entry as well as with its learning in order to know how, where and how much she can, may and ought to intervene in the child's development and learning.