The status of early childhood education in South Africa

Abstract

This chapter presents the systematic review of whole-childhood education in South Africa. The review was guided by two research questions: (1) How Apartheid influenced whole-childhood development in South Africa, and (2) How post-apartheid policies brought a desirable change in the whole-childhood development. Desktop review of government documents, commissioned research, reviews, and research on whole-childhood development was conducted. The findings reveal poor provision; generally, Early Childhood Development (ECD) centers and families are heavily stricken by poverty which contributes to the disadvantage of their children as compared to their counterparts in well-resourced ECD centers, underpaid ECD practitioners, uneven distribution of the resources, minimal ECD government subsidy, unemployment, reluctance of the government in implementing the existing policies on inequality in ECD centers. Whole-childhood development in South Africa is scarred by poverty from birth to 17 years of age. This review, therefore, recommends that the government: deals decisively with poverty and unemployment; supports ECD centers with resources equally, i.e., infrastructure and qualified practitioners; include ECD practitioners on the pay-roll; to set the minimum level of qualification for entry ECD practitioners. Also, the government needs to enhance the quality of education offered to all children purposefully.