South Africa’s early childhood education crisis

Basic Education Minister Siviwe Gwarube was quite deliberate in using President Cyril Ramaphosa’s promise to “leave no-one behind” in her warning that the country is “leaving too many children behind.”

She revealed that while South Africa has nearly seven million children aged between three and five – 1.3 million of them are not involved in any form of early child development (ECD) programme.

“The children who are not attending ECD are found mostly in poorer communities and this unequal access entrenches the inequalities that have come to define our country.”

The numbers are shocking. Only three out of 10 children in the poorest quintile are “developmentally on track”. By comparison, eight out of 10 children in the wealthiest schools, “can read for meaning, they can count and they can manipulate complex puzzles.”

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That gap will only widen as the youngsters move through the school system – and explains why there is such a high dropout in kids who start school, but never get as far as matric.

Gwarube said government’s goal is to give all children access to “quality learning” by 2030.

While that is a laudable goal, one has to wonder: why has this not been addressed before now?

Education is the best way out of poverty.

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