A GROUP of UKZN academics together with provincial and local government office holders, researchers, crèche managers, teachers and parents, recently convened at the Greyville racecourse for a workshop to discuss ways to improve the well-being of babies and toddlers in care establishments in Durban.
The group were brought together by the Programme to Support Pro-Poor Policy Development (PSPPD), funded by the European Union and the Department of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation in the Presidency through a grant awarded to Project Preparation Trust (PPT) in 2015.
PPT partnered with UKZN academics and Tree, an education and training NGO, to map the existence, quality and needs of nurseries and crèches across the municipality’s informal settlements with the objective of encouraging registration and upgrading.
Speaking at the workshop, Prof Sarah Bracking from the School of Built Environment and Development Studies, said: “While government has an impressive policy of registering early childhood care facilities into gold, silver and bronze standard in order to provide resources to assist them, our research unfortunately showed that many facilities in informal settlements are not registered and cannot realistically meet the criteria for doing so.”
According to Bracking, the key stumbling blocks to registration are land tenure, ownership and planning regulations in respect of informal settlements. Due to this, up to 97 per cent of children in settlements, such as Amaoti, remain unregistered and are thus unassisted by government.
“Some centres also have health hazards and infrastructure challenges, such as lack of secure roofs, fences to separate the centres from roads, lack of water, sanitation, and food. The good news is that this project surveyed them all and then produced case studies of how some centres could be rapidly improved and made safe,” said Bracking.
She argues that renovation is the most economical option to reach out to most children, rather than spending scarce resources on new building facilities.
“For under R5,000 per child most centres could be made safe and healthy. Fortunately, eThekwini has few really failing centres by the assessment method used, with the vast majority keen to access assistance and support to improve provision,” she explained.
Workers from the centres who were present at the workshop were awarded certificates by Tree for having completed extensive staff training programmes on how to stimulate the learning of children with few toys or resources as well as how to ensure sanitary conditions with tippy taps and hand washing. Many delegates from government and the university were moved by the commitment of the workers and pledged to assist them further.
Bracking believes that while early childhood development is a mandate led from the Department of Social Development, and needs strong collaboration with the Departments of Environmental Health, Traditional Settlements, Education and most importantly the Provincial Treasury and City Management in order to be voted the monetary resources to succeed.
She further argues that no child should become an ‘unfunded commitment’ as neglect in the early years can lead to proven and lifelong health vulnerabilities.
Although PPT representatives undertook detailed assessments of each centre’s needs, they believe that presently government policy appears to be only aspirational to the residents of eThekwini’s informal settlements.
“Since they cannot even access the assistance given to the registered gold, silver and bronze centres, the government employees and office-holders at the workshop appeared deeply committed to a more flexible model that would deliver to South Africa’s youngest citizens. This work will continue,” said Bracking.
