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At the start of April 2022, the Department of Social Development handed over the responsibility of early childhood development to the Department of Basic Education, paving the way for earlier schooling in South Africa.
Two years of early childhood development (ECD) is set to become compulsory for all children before they enter the formal school system in grade 1.
Since taking over ECD from the social development department, the Department of Basic Education said that it has identified “a multitude of challenges” in the early childhood development sector – systemic challenges, access challenges, and challenges in the quality of learning.
The main systemic challenges entail the historic underfunding of the sector, it said, including a lack of infrastructure support to ECD centres, an overly burdensome regulatory framework, the lack of a management information system, the lack of a quality assurance system and under-qualified practitioners.
“The challenge with access is that only 58% of 3-year-olds and 75% of 4-year-olds are currently accessing early learning opportunities. Ideally, we would like all 4-year-olds to be able to access early learning opportunities,” the department said.
The department said it is prioritising the systemic challenges by creating an enabling environment, adding that work is ongoing in addressing the regulatory challenges through the Second Children’s Amendment Bill and the review of the Norms and Standards for ECD registration.
Responding in a written parliamentary Q&A this week, basic education minister Angie Motshekga said that the department is also addressing access issues by provisioning grade R infrastructure for schools.
This is already being funded through the Education Infrastructure Grant and the Equitable share portion by provinces, she said.
She said the department is working to ensure that there are enough grade R classrooms to accommodate the shift, with these classrooms being procured through four main routes:
Explaining the importance of the shift of compulsory grade R to parliament, the department noted that more South African children are expected to begin reading earlier, with higher standards of reading expected to be introduced in the earlier primary school grades.
The move is also expected to provide better monitoring systems, including systems to gauge the school readiness of children when they enter grade 1.
The department said that it also plans to provide further support to Foundation Phase (Grade R – Grade 3) teachers, including Individualised coaching and Early Grade Reading Assessment (EGRA) tools. It has also pledged to strengthen school-level Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) to advance teacher capacity.
The compulsory schooling change is included in the draft Basic Education Laws Amendment (BELA) bill. The bill is currently sitting in National Assembly. Public comment for the bill closed on 15 August 2022.
In addition to the compulsory grade R, the bill makes a raft of proposals, including:
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