Post on 13-Jan-2016
LINDA BIERSTEKER
Scaling up a preprimary year (Grade R) in South Africa
Africa ECCD Initiative Workshop Cape TownJuly 2010
research@elru.co.za
Outline
South African context (history, indicators, service access)
Brief description of the Reception Year Programme scale up
Successes and challenges
History of neglect and inequity of ECD services
Disparities in both quality and access by population group, age, rural/urban divide, few children with disabilities in ECD programmes
Very limited public funding and provisionService fragmentationLack of accredited training opportunities for ECD
workersAbsence of minimum standards and guidelines for
registration of service providers
Some key indicatorsPopulation 0 – 4 years approximately 5 million
5 years approximately 1 million
Infant mortality rate 45.7 per 1000Under 5 mortality rate 68 per 1000
66% of under 5s are poor
23% of 1- 3 year olds stunted, 11% underweight
28% of pregnant women HIV +
University of OxfordCentre for the Analysis of South African Social Policy
Scaling up Grade R
ECD White Paper 2001
Reception year for five year olds as first year of schooling system by 2010 under Department of Education (in 2009 revised to 2014)
85% in public schools, 15% in community schools
Approved training for all educators without a specialised qualification for Reception Year
Funding from provincial education departments – poverty targeted
Drivers
Attempts to fix bottle necks, poor schooling outcomes and drop outs in early primary schooling (started pre-democracy)
Strong child rights commitment of the new democratic government
Strong community based ECD sector to build on, some of whom moved into key government ECD posts
Champions in and out of government
What worked
Period of piloting interim policy, development of accredited training programmes and national audit
Selling Grade R on basis of savings within system and incremental scale up on a lower cost model
Conditional grant (ring-fenced funding) to kick-start programme
Legislation of funding norms and standards – pro poor funding formula
High political will seen in budget increases
Expansion in ECD Budgets 2001/2 – 2010/11
Year R’000
2001/2 263 3342002/3 306 9772003/4 377 1952005/5 458 1542006/7 683 3792007/8 932 480
2008/9 1 463 044
2009/10 2 048 663
2010/11 3 241 780
Key Challenges – access but especially quality
Lack of infrastructure, learning materials and insufficient qualified ECD teachers
Provincial budgeting process (and variation in salaries and subsidies)
Insufficient officials in provinces and districts to administer, monitor and support
Grade R is not fully part of formal schooling – due to different funding model and teachers not yet falling under norms and standards for educators
Resources and interventions to address challenges
Teacher training opportunitiesInfrastructure provision in budgetNorms and standards for funding –minimum inputs
specified, provide for monitoring outputsDraft standards for quality learning programmeModel schools, curriculum guidance and additional
national monitoring of provincial programmes
Infrastructure and Materials
Programme
Lessons
A clear policy intention that Grade R was the first year of compulsory schooling and legislated public funding provision make the programme sustainable in terms of access
Location within the established schooling system with some available infrastructure and existing curriculum but also built on community sector and NGO training providers
Grade R is a single service and targeting is simple
Lessons cntd
Only one department is responsible, so while there needed to be alignment across two levels of government, there was no need to draw in stakeholders with very different service mandates
Value of accredited training system with multiple pathways
Challenge of adding to an already stretched and challenged primary school system
Need to create sufficient capacity and numbers of government officials as well as teaching staff
Need for an advocacy/communication strategy
Summary
Service package A single child directed serviceTarget All five year olds (1 m) (underage enrolments a problem)Policy and legislation Constitutional commitment to a year of compulsory
schooling and legislated norms and standards prescribe public funding
Funding Committed public funding and funded start up process
Summary ctd
Infrastructure Located within schooling system with some available
infrastructureHuman resources Insufficient trained staff both to offer the service and to
provide departmental support and monitoringData systems for M&E EMIS system which captures data regularly which is
helpful for planning and monitoring but needs more information on programme quality