Inequities and lack of professionalisation of early childhood development practice hinder opportunities for mathematics stimulation and realisation of South African policy on quality education for all

Abstract

White Paper 5's aim is to provide South Africa's children with a solid foundation for lifelong learning and development. Children need to be nurtured and developed holistically for them to participate efficiently in their democratic society. However, South African students continue to perform poorly in Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study compared to other African countries. Contributing factors highlighted by research on this poor performance include students' lack of foundational knowledge. Hence, mathematics stimulation for young children has been suggested as a prompt intervention towards improving mathematics performance. This paper therefore evaluates the preparedness of practitioners who work with 3–4-year-olds as resources for facilitating mathematics stimulation, availability of mathematics stimulating resources and daily planning for mathematics stimulation. The findings of this paper indicate that mathematics development of children younger than five years is loaded with many inequity factors and continue to exclude the majority of black children. This paper recommends professionalisation of the early childhood education with emphasis on quality provisioning that can be achieved through norms and standards that are monitored continuously in all formal and informal settings that provide early childhood education.