SITE VISIT - Consultative Group on Early Childhood Care and ...

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media and distance education. Under white control, two languages (English and Afrikaans)
were the only official languages. Now there are eleven.
4. Primary school advancement improved by ECD efforts. Evidence suggests that
investment during the preschool years improves primary school advancement as well as lays
down the foundation for skills in conflict resolution and problem solving. In the mid-1980s
the Department of Education and Training developed a bridging program as part of the first
year of school which was government-funded and which effectively provided a year and in
some cases two years of pre-primary education for children who need it. By 1992 the
program involved some 400,000 pupils in 1,230 schools. The failure rate in the first year of
primary school for these children was reduced from 21% to 3%.
5. Some provinces worse off than others. While the whole of South Africa would benefit
from improved circumstances, the provinces with the worse overall profiles in terms of
quality of life and social development indicators including poverty levels, water supply and
nutrition are the Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and the Northern Transvaal. The second group
of regions considered in the worst shape are Orange Free State and Eastern Transvaal. When
one takes additional data to look at per capita education expenditure levels, teacher/pupil
ratios, concentrations of students in primary schools and primary school drop out rates, the
provinces follow a similar pattern, almost invariably. Although blacks are the most
disadvantaged overall, there are pockets of poverty, illiteracy and poor health in many
colored communities.
6. Government expenditure on ECD low to date. In 1993 about 30% of white children under
seven had access to some form of preschool provision compared to 10.7% of black, colored
and Indian children under seven. And looking at these figure, the overwhelming number of
children in pre-school programs are white. Government expenditure on each black child was
only R38 per year compared to R752 per colored child, R118 per Indian child and R1 684 per
white child.
7. Black parents pay for ECD services. Parents and caregivers with low literacy skills have
large responsibilities to provide quality educational environment for young children both in
educare centers and at home. In most cases where educare is involved, parents pay for it
themselves. About 80% of operational costs of educare services for black children comes
from school fees paid by their parents. This action also indicates the value of childcare to
poor South African families.
8. Both adult learners and children need support. The data indicate the strong rationale for
ECD activities, both programs which target children and programs which target adult
learners, as an intervention to the high primary school drop-out rate, the high number of
children out of school, and extensive health and nutrition problems among large numbers of
the pre-school and primary school population. The data strongly indicates that ECD
interventions must be directed as much to caregivers as to children, and must address
illiteracy, low education levels and poor living conditions.
9. Educational media for ECD around the world has been much more successful when it
targets adult learners as well as children. Research around the world shows that media