Early childhood education in post apartheid South Africa : stakeholder involvement, policy initiatives and implementation.
Date
2010-03-04T10:08:25Z
Authors
Phiri, Boniface John
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Abstract
In most poor countries, children grow up without quality education. In addition, human
development, which needs to be expanded, is also lacking. These challenges mostly
facing poor countries are also characteristic of middle income countries such as South
Africa where illiteracy levels especially among the black communities tend to be high
against the background that per capita income is relatively higher than in most poor
countries. The high illiteracy levels in South Africa can be linked to the absence of ECE
policies in the apartheid era. As such, this calls for comprehensive ECE policies. In
recognition of this fact, the government has prioritised provision of ECE services for five
year olds through Grade R.
However, the 0-4 year age group remains ignored and left in the hands of independent
and community providers. Access to ECE services by children in rural areas also remains
low despite government efforts to reach out to vulnerable and poor children. This
challenge undermines efforts to reduce poverty which in most cases is passed on from
poor parents to poor children who grow up deprived and without life skills, perpetuating
the poverty cycle. It is important then to consider effective models of providing ECE
services in order to break the poverty cycle and build human capabilities to realise
widespread benefits of development.