Early childhood development or ECD is much talked, written and legislated about. But what is ECD about? Who does it affect? Who is expected to benefit? Why do so many people feel so passionately about it?
ECD is about providing for the needs and development of young children. It is about knowing what they need and knowing how to provide for their needs in ways which ensure that, with time, they realise their potential and become active, responsible and productive members of society.
The new Children’s Act, the result of long and hard work by the government and the ECD sector, is one initiative that is trying to ensure that our youngest children are properly provided for.
The Act provides for children from birth to the age of 18. In earlier legislation the youngest children were hidden within the term “youth”. The years of work and advocacy by many organisations have paid off. We now have legislation in place for a wide range of strategies aimed at improving young children’s safety, nutrition, learning and social and emotional wellbeing. These strategies are embraced by the term “early childhood development”.
The Minister of Social Development Zola Skweyiya, at the “Getting South Africa ready to implement the Children’s Act” conference in May, referred to research on important aspects of nutrition. It shows adequate nutrition for babies and children “to be crucial to the equalisation of opportunity, allowing children to benefit appropriately from educational systems and to then bring this capacity to the workplace”.
Enough of the right nutrition for babies and children directly affects their ability to learn, their performance at school, their engagement in the economy and in turn how well they realise their potential as people.
It is important to note that even the best nutrition is not enough. It has to be accompanied by the fulfillment of other basic needs, including affection and stimulation, in order for young children to grow and develop optimally.
The government’s plan for developing the early childhood sector is to be found in Education White Paper 5, which established grade R and in the National Integrated Programme (NIP) for ECD. Government recognises that it cannot do everything on its own and linked to the NIP is the Expanded Public Works Programme, which provides for education and social services departments to engage the services of NGOs and the further education and training colleges to train ECD practitioners. In this way South Africa intends to improve the quality of learning programmes for all young children, especially the poor and vulnerable.
Huge challenges face the implementation of the Act. Public spending will have to increase to ensure that effective early childhood programmes are implemented not just in creches, ECD centres and grade R but also in the home. At the moment we provide early learning opportunities for less than 22% of children between birth and four years.
Education White Paper 5 requires that by 2010, all grade one children should have had access to grade R; at present less than 450 000 children attend grade R.
ECD programmes have to address modern issues such as living in diverse communities, HIV and Aids, the inclusion of children with disabilities, children in child-headed households, children in prison and children living on the streets and migrant and refugee families. Pregnant women, including teenagers, and parents-to-be should all receive information about ECD to develop and enhance their parenting skills.
The African saying “it takes a village to raise a child’ is as true today as it ever was. Raising young children cannot happen in isolation. Our youngest children are our future leaders and our collective responsibility. They will determine the quality of our society and they deserve the best chance. It is our job to ensure that their caregivers get the information and support that they need.
In a changing society, in which we grapple with the issues of population, the environment, disparities in access and limited resources, we cannot leave very young children to ‘just grow up’. To build a sustainable South Africa, investment in all our very young children is the key.
Freda Brock compiled this article together with a team from the Early Learning Resource Unit, a NGO. It is a partner in the ECD Learning Community. This is the first in a series of six articles on ECD its role and importance to education and society. The next article will look at how grade R relates to early learning development and how the schooling system can benefit from good ECD.