It's exciting that the government plans to make going to school compulsory for children aged four and five, but Centre for Social Development director Vera Adams questions how well this move will work.
It's exciting that the government plans to make going to school compulsory for children aged four and five, but Centre for Social Development director Vera Adams questions how well this move will work.
Vision 2030 is South Africa’s blueprint for eradicating poverty and reducing inequality. The final plan, formulated by the National Planning Commission spearheaded by Trevor Manual, was presented to President Jacob Zuma in parliament recently.
Also known as the National Development Plan, it was drafted in November 2011 and after a series of consultations, the final version is now available. One of the most significant additions to Vision 2030 is the compulsory provision of pre school for all South African children.
This means that children aged four and five will now be included in the basic education system, effectively creating two new grades in primary school. Although this is very encouraging to those involved in the Early Childhood Development (ECD) sector, one cannot help but wonder how this will be implemented.
Already facing a severe shortage of qualified teachers, the implication of an added two years of education means the training of an additional 100 000 teachers specialised in ECD. In addition teachers are currently struggling with big class sizes and a lack of resources.
An ideal class size for a pre -school class is about 20 children, yet many classes in Grahamstown house more than 30 children. The policy priority is the implementation of the pre-school Reception Year (Grade R) for five-year-olds which should be universal by 2014.
We are still way off on that target and in some instances even if children have access to Grade R, the quality of the education they are receiving is questionable. ECD practitioner training has historically been done by NGOs, like the Centre for Social Development at Rhodes University.
Training more practitioners to be able to supply the anticipated demand will mean that more funding should be directed into this sector. NGOs are entirely self-funded and sometimes face severe challenges in raising funds to cover operational costs.
They receive minimal support from government with the bulk of their funding coming from corporates. The other question that arises is who will pay the salaries of these teachers? Currently the Department of Basic Education pays Grade R teachers, but not ECD practitioners.
This is because ECD falls under the domain of the Department of Social Development. Many practitioners struggle to make ends meet, sometimes only receiving as little as R500 per month, that is, if the parents are able to pay school fees.
Many of the students undergoing training at the Rhodes social development centre are unpaid, yet they play a vital role in the early education and development of a child. There is an urgent need to roll out the qualifications pathway to be able to provide all ECD practitioners access to quality training.
This means that more educational institutions should offer ECD courses leading to qualifications to attract quality teachers. The University of the Free State recently established the South African Research Association or Early Childhood Education with other universities also starting to move in that direction.
The recognition by higher education institutions of the importance of ECD will go a long way in attracting new recruits for this sector. There are many other questions about how the addition of an extra two years of schooling will impact our already struggling education system, in terms of capacity, resources, curriculum development, infrastructure, training etc.
It is certainly no short term plan, but government must be applauded for recognising the importance of ECD in the continuum of education and that the only way we can develop future leaders is to provide them with a strong educational foundation during their early years.
