Practitioners/Teachers 

Growth Sparks 4, June 

South Africa recognises, at a policy level, the need to ensure healthy early development in the nation’s children. The Children’s Act (Act no 38 of 2005, Children’s Amendment Act No 41 of 2007) recognises the crucial role of early childhood development (ECD) for a child’s growth and in preparation for formal schooling. The National Integrated Plan for Early Childhood Development (NIP) is aimed at addressing South Africa’s lack of quality ECD opportunities. Healthy early childhood development contributes to educational achievement and success later in life and prevents social costs produced by school dropout and crime (see Growth Sparks 1). However, the challenges involved in reaching all children are significant. The 2001 national audit of ECD provision showed that less than 1 in 5 children (16%) under the age of 5 was in organised ECD provision. Since 2002 there have been improvements in the number of 5 and 6-year-olds accessing educational opportunities (pre-school) but services for under-5 children still remain limited (Statistics South Africa, 2010). There is, therefore, a serious need for scaling up ECD provision. Current infrastructure is not sufficient to allow all children in the country to attend centre-based programmes. There are also serious challenges in terms of the quality of the centres that do exist. Innovative approaches are needed to deal with this problem. 

Pamphlet