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

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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.
19. 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.
20. 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.
21. 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.
22. 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
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.
23. 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
24. 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