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

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programs for ECD is much more effective at improving the child development practice in center-based and home-based programs as well as with the general hard-to-reach population when it targets adults as well as children. Programs which incorporate learning strategies rather than just entertainment are also more effective. 10. Few high quality media programs created to improve educational quality. No programs exist in South Africa and few programs exist in developing countries for the purposes of increasing the quality of educare centers for both adults and children. None has attempted to do what interactive radio instruction has done in Bolivia: improve the quality of educare through addressing the learning needs of both audiences 11. SABC has little experience with educational programs for the poor, but is looking for alliances. The SABC and community media projects have not exploited the opportunities to provide educational programs in a variety of languages to these adults and their children sufficiently. The SABC also does not have experience building interactivity into programs with the purpose of enhancing quality in educare centers. The SABC has taken an interest in decentralization and broadcasting quality educational programs and has asked educare NGOs and EDC to collaborate with them, however. 12. New corporations provide both opportunity and obstacles. Large corporations are coming into South Africa quickly which provide both an excellent opportunity for new educational and economic resources, but also the potential for South Africans to be exploited in a new and unfamiliar way. 13. Programs targeting adult should incorporate learning tools which realistically help them learn. Adult learners of early child development do not have interactive tools they can use as part of their professional courses which adequately reflect the cultures and priorities at hand. For illiterate parents, no programs for learning about ECD are available. II. INTRODUCTION The Education Development Center assembled this research on the potential of media to enhance early child development in South Africa as part of its LearnTech Project activities. LearnTech is funded by the United States Agency for International Development. The purposes of the research included the following: •To delineate the educational needs related to early child development (ECD) in South Africa, both for young children and adult learners; and •To explore the changing face of media in South Africa and opportunities for ECD use, especially in poorer areas through reviewing the technology, programming and distribution implications, and selected media efforts directed to early child development to date; and 4 •To provide an illustrative inventory of the regional resources available, including cultural
5 resources and media production facilities and media producers, guided by their existing experience or a willingness to work in the field. This report reviews the literature in using media to enhance ECD in South Africa. The report incorporated numerous consultations by LearnTech staff and consultants, from the United States and South Africa, over a 8-month period. There was also extensive interaction with early child development workers and media producers at two workshops in South Africa, one in November l994 in Durban and the other in February l995 in Johannesburg. The inventory of regional media resources for early child development, provided in the appendix, lists more than 80 entries. While limited to three regions, it provides an indication of the rich base upon which South Africans can draw to address the serious dearth of early child development facilities and activities in South Africa. The reliability of data and a note on terminology The figures cited in this report are as accurate and up-to-date as possible given the following: 1) Statistics for the former homelands and independent states (see "Territorial boundaries" below) are in many cases either unreliable or unavailable. 2) Education in the past was administered by numerous race-based provincial departments, and researchers have found it difficult to compile reliable, consistent and current education statistics for the country as a whole. The most recent year for which statistics are available for all communities is 1991. 3) There is ongoing controversy about the reliability of the data contained in the official 1991 census. Nevertheless, these figures are considered the most accurate thus far for any South African census. 4) Statistics contained in this report are derived from a number of different sources and their figures do not always concur exactly. This is because of gaps and discrepancies in the official data for which they have had to make estimates and adjustments. 5) With the inauguration of the new government in May 1994, the country entered into a period of rapid change. Thus many of the statistics in this report may soon be out of date. The question of racial categorization has been a sensitive one in South Africa. While there is a current trend to move away from collecting data according to race category, one can only see the devastating impact of apartheid by using the racially based statistics which describe the vast inequalities in the country, the legacy of apartheid. Any projects which are eventually developed for the most disadvantaged of children and caregivers must accurately identify these communities. In recent years there have been different, sometimes confusing, usages of the terms "black" and "African" in South Africa. This report uses the terms "black" to refer to ethnic Africans. III. BACKGROUND: THE DEMOGRAPHICS OF PRE-SCHOOLERS AND ADULT CAREGIVERS IN SOUTH AFRICA Territorial boundaries Prior to May 1994 South Africa was divided into four provinces (Transvaal, the Cape, Natal and
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Page 3: 3 media and distance education. Und
Page 7 and 8: 2.6% are Indian. Though there is a
Page 9 and 10: English 3 422 503 9 Tswana 3 368 54
Page 11 and 12: As far as the black population is c
Page 13 and 14: KwaZulu/Natal 640 Gauteng 758 North
Page 15 and 16: first year of primary school, will
Page 17 and 18: Electrified Not Total electrified s
Page 19 and 20: years, and they have targeted isola
Page 21 and 22: Malaysia, the government-run statio
Page 23 and 24: District show positive gains in lan
Page 25 and 26: & Richey, 1987; Liddell, 1988; Love
Page 27 and 28: knowledgeable about the health of t
Page 29 and 30: who did not use the IRI programs an
Page 31 and 32: don't know how to apply it and I di
Page 33 and 34: communities that might ordinarily n
Page 35 and 36: community radio stations are under
Page 37 and 38: programs can be stopped for group d
Page 39 and 40: According to a report by the Centre
Page 41 and 42: Given the high density living patte
Page 43 and 44: Conclusions Education and the media
Page 45 and 46: 45 their children sufficiently. The
Page 47 and 48: BIBLIOGRAPHY AND PEOPLE CONSULTED J
Page 49 and 50: Impact: News Brief of the Open Lear

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