The Oppenheimer Memorial Trust’s Early Childhood Development and Youth Fund manager, Nomsa Muthaphuli, says they hope that through the strengthening of quality of learning for children below the age of five they will be better prepared for their schooling careers.
She says by achieving this, children will be better set up to thrive at school, which will lead to a drop in the number of children who drop out of school due to academic problems.
Last month, the 2030 Reading Panel painted a bleak picture on literacy in the country, when it revealed that only 20% of grade 3 pupils in South Africa read for meaning in any language.
Muthaphuli emphasises that through the prioritisation of EDCs children will then also be able to achieve better matric marks, as this will also reflect in the quality of the results.
The Oppenheimer Memorial Trust is reacting to President Cyril Ramaphosa’s endorsement of the collective prioritisation of ECD programmes.
Yesterday, key stakeholders attended the Bana Pele (Setswana for children first) 2030 Roadmap Leadership Summit in Braamfontein, Johannesburg, which was hosted by the Department of Basic Education in partnership with Business Leadership Mzansi.
Muthaphuli says while it will take a while for these efforts to bear results, she is positive that this process will yield results.
Government has revealed that over 1.3 million children in the country are not enrolled in any form of ECD programme, which research has found children who miss out on it struggle with foundational phase skills.
Research by global children’s charity organisation, Theirworld, revealed that a third of children entering school in the country can’t recognise their own name.
While 38% of teachers expressed concern over children who start primary school not being ready, to address these and many other concerns, the Finance Minister, Enoch Godongwana, recently announced that R10 billion will be allocated towards ECD.
The Oppenheimer Memorial Trust says this boost will allow the daily subsidy for each child in a registered, state-sponsored ECD programme to increase from R17 to R24.
“It will also enable education authorities to bring an additional 700 000 children up to four years old into this subsidised early childhood education over the next three years. This will bring the total number of children on ECD subsidies to 1.5 million.”
The Trusts ECD and Youth Fund manager believes that this will also help in ensuring that children from different walks of life are also set up for academic success.
The Head of Corporate Social Investment at Investec South Africa, Setlogane Manchidi, says: “We are excited about this partnership, given our belief that when we give children the best start in life, we contribute towards creating enduring worth by improving their chances of active economic inclusion and a better quality of life.”
Christina Madlala of Asbonge Day Care in Carletonville, Gauteng, has hailed Bana Pele as a godsend.
She says providing facilities, care and learning support to the small children she looks after is a daily struggle – but Bana Pele is helping to change all that for her and thousands of others.
“It was my prayer each and every day to say, ‘God help me, I don’t know how to do this thing.’ We got an invitation from the social workers; they said we must come to the hall for a meeting. They told us about Bana Pele – so it was perfect for us. They said no one will be left behind,” says Madlala.
She is now bronze-registered, and must now comply with the next level of registration – silver – to be eligible for a vital R17-a-day child subsidy.
“When they phoned and told me that I got bronze, I said my prayers have been answered … Bana Pele came to me and I grabbed it.”
Speaking at the ECD summit yesterday, Basic Education Minister, Siviwe Gwarube, said they plan to have every child in the country enrolled to quality early learning by 2030.
“But let me be very clear: this goal is not about doing more of the same. It’s not about simply throwing more money or resources into a system that’s already under strain. No, this is about doing something impactful! Meaningful! Transformative!.”
