The NATIONWIDE AUDIT of ECD Provisioning in South Africa
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The NATIONWIDE AUDIT of ECD Provisioning in South Africa Dr.T.Williams and Ms. M. L. Samuels with Prof. J. Mouton Mr. K. Ratele Ms. N. Shabalala Prof.T. Shefer Prof.A. Strebel 2001 Publisher The Department of Education, Pretoria, South Africa. © Department of Education, Pretoria, South Africa, 2001. ® The material contained in this publication and in the accompanying CD, may be used and reproduced in not-for-profit situations, provided the source is acknowledged. For use in publications, please obtain written permission from the Department of Education, Pretoria. Enquiries The Directorate Early Childhood Development Department of Education Sol Plaatje House 123 Schoeman Street Pretoria Private Bag X895 Pretoria 0001 South Africa Tel: + 27 12 312-5435 Fax: + 27 12 323-0002 e-mail: [email protected] ISBN 0-7970-3905-8 Design African Watermark Printing Mortimer Offset Photography Guy Stubbs This publication and the research documented herein, has been wholly funded by the Commission of the European Union under the auspices of the European Union Technical Support Project to the South African Department of Education. The Technical Support Project is managed by HEDCO-Ireland. Table of contents Executive Summary. 1 Chapter 1 Contextualising ECD in South Africa Introduction . .5 The state of the nation’s children . .6 Children as a national priority . .7 Historical foundation of ECD provisioning in South Africa . .8 Formalising the ECD sector: 1980 to post 1994 . .9 Conclusion . .10 Chapter 2 Current approaches Introduction . .13 A holistic view of ECD . .13 ECD as a foundation of democracy and equality . .14 ECD as protecting children’s rights . .14 ECD as community development . .15 Structures for policy and programme development . .15 National ECD policy . .16 Provisioning . .16 Curriculum . .17 Accreditation and training of educators . .17 Employment of ECD educators . .18 Funding of ECD services . .18 Pilot Projects: testing the theories . .19 Current limitations and challenges for an ECD policy framework . .20 Chapter 3 Methodology Introduction . .21 The rationale for the Audit . .21 Planning the Audit . .22 Surveying the educator training providers . .22 Auditing the ECD sites . .22 Analysis and presentation of the data . .24 Conclusion . .26 i Chapter 4 National results. 27 General provisioning . 28 Services and support . 31 Learner profiles . 35 Educator profiles . 40 Educator training providers . 44 Indices . 46 Sustainability . 52 Salient findings. 54 Chapter 5 Provincial results Eastern Cape. 55 Free State . 67 Gauteng. 79 KwaZulu-Natal . 91 Mpumalanga. 103 Northern Cape . 115 Northern Province . 127 North West. 139 Western Cape . 151 Chapter 6 Conclusions Introduction . 163 Resources . 163 The nature of sites . 163 Historical inequalities. 164 Educators . 165 Language . 165 Gender . 166 HIV/Aids . 166 Children with disabilities . 167 Future areas of research . 167 Conclusion . 168 Annexure 1 Codebook Part 1 Study overview. 169 Part 2 Enumerator manual (abridged) . 172 Part 3 Site questionnaire. 193 Part 4 Variable lists, names and labels . 198 Annexure 2 Acknowledgments . 205 ii EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Introduction In 2000, the National Department of Education together with the European Union Technical Support Project conducted an audit of Early Childhood Development (ECD) provisioning throughout South Africa. The aim of the Audit was to provide accurate information on the nature and extent of ECD provisioning, services and resources across the country in order to inform and support ongoing policy and planning initiatives in this crucial and expanding sector. A wide spectrum of government, non-government and private sector role players were consulted during the conceptualisation stage of the Audit. One National and nine Provincial Steering Committees, a Research and Publications Committee, a contracted national consortium, nine contracted provincial agencies/consortia and nine Provincial Coordinators were involved with the development, implementation and execution of the Audit. An initial postal survey of ECD educator training providers was carried out to quantify, identify and classify the providers throughout the country. Concurrently, ECD sites were identified through an extensive consultative process with relevant government departments and ECD stakeholders. Subsequently, over a period of six weeks during May/June 2000, all identifiable ECD sites in the country were visited. Information was obtained on four broad areas of ECD provisioning, namely: sites, learners, educators and programmes. Site interviews were conducted by 854 especially trained enumerators, who were drawn mainly from the ECD sector and contracted to the provincial agencies/consortia. A 2% stratified random sample of audited sites were re-visited to verify the integrity of the research process. Vital statistics A total of 23,482 sites were audited, in which 1,030,473 learners are enrolled and whose needs are catered to by 54,503 educators. The data suggests that fewer than one sixth of the 6.4 million children in the 0-7 age cohort in the country are in some form of ECD provisioning, with just less than half of the 5-6 year age cohort being accommodated (413,000 out of an estimated 960,000). The gender, population group and language profiles of learners is broadly consistent with national population figures. Almost 40% of the identifiable sites are situated in rural areas, and the remainder are in urban formal and informal areas. Approximately half of all sites are based in community settings, a third are home based and less than one fifth are based in schools. About two thirds of sites are registered, mostly with the Departments of Education or Social Development. Over 60% of sites have been operating for five years or longer. While over half of all sites audited have access to piped water,flushing toilets and mains electricity, almost a tenth have access to none of these facilities. Noteworthy too is the relative size of the ECD sector with 23,482 sites, as opposed to 17,254 schools in the primary sector. The financial base of support of sites does not appear to be strong. Almost a third of the sites audited charge fees of less than R25/month, and in about half of all sites, fees are not paid regularly. In addition, more than a quarter of the sites reported that they had no source of income other than fees. 1 The mean age of educators is 38 years. Almost all (99%) are women and two thirds are African. The majority of educators have received their training from NGOs and are thus ‘unqualified’ according to current Department of Education regulations. A further 20% have received no training while 10% are adequately qualified. There is a strong relationship between experience and qualifications, with most of those with the highest qualifications having five or more years experience in the ECD sector. Salary is also linked to qualifications. Almost half of the educators earn less than R500 per month, and most of these have no training or have been trained by NGOs. Almost half of agencies providing educator training are NGOs. Only a third of training providers are accredited. The bulk of income for training of educators comes from trainee fees. Within each of the categories of site types (school, community and home based), evidence of very low and high scores on each of the four indices were recorded. With respect to the programme of activities offered at sites, community and school based sites offer higher rated services than home based sites. Sites categorised as ‘White’ rate better than those categorised ‘African’. Racial inequalities are still evident in ECD provisioning. Across all four indices that were generated (support, infrastructure, programme and educator), African sites rate the lowest, whereas White sites rate highest. While racial segregation is being diffused by the emergence of a small number (less than 10%) of sites which accommodate children from a variety of population groups, the inequitable divisions in wealth distribution are self evident. Such conditions continue to reproduce a context of stark inequality along the lines of colour in which the vast majority of African children remain disadvantaged. Another predictor of inequity is apparent in the rating discrepancies between the various provinces. At an economic and developmental level, those provinces which the Audit signals as disadvantaged with respect to ECD provisioning are rural in make-up and encompass high numbers of areas historically demarcated as ‘bantustans’. A comparative analysis of the provincially derived infrastructure index scores, identifies the Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and the Northern Province as being significantly under-resourced. Issues emerging A number of issues emerge from the findings which raise questions for ECD policy development, planning and implementation. A considerable challenge exists to address the legacy of historical inequalities which are still evident in this sector. Differences between provinces also reflect past discriminatory practices and access to resources. Another important issue centres around language practices and the dominance.