Focusing on ECD now can save SA’s future. Here’s how…
Studies have shown that solid investment in ECD plays a significant role in whether or not a child grows into their full potential.
Did you know that children who don’t receive the nutrition and healthcare they need, or who are exposed to violence and extreme stress miss out on opportunities to learn, and they don’t get the stimulation they need to thrive?
‘Early childhood development’ (ECD) refers to the physical, psychological, cognitive, and social development that a child experiences between birth and school-going age, with studies having shown that solid investment in ECD plays a significant role in whether or not a child grows into their full potential. This is important because children’s brains grow faster during their first five years than at any other time in their lives – and their early experiences influence how that growth and development takes place. That’s why early learning sets the stage for their success at school, and in their lives outside of formal education.
Stimulation needed to thrive
Children who don’t receive the nutrition and healthcare they need, or who are exposed to violence and extreme stress miss out on opportunities to learn, and they don’t get the stimulation they need to thrive. Their parents and caregivers are usually under enormous stress, whether they’re living in poverty, in under-resourced or violent areas, or perhaps single parents raising several children alone.
According to UNICEF, children learn through play – whether it’s something as simple as a peekaboo game while getting dressed, or scribbling on a sheet of paper. But that play needs to be guided if the elements of talking and thinking, moving and doing, learning about feelings, and getting along with others are to be achieved.
In townships like Alexandra, there are multiple challenges when it comes to offering effective ECD programmes, including space, cost, and finding suitably qualified ECD practitioners. These challenges are why many children in public township schools typically lag their counterparts in better-resourced schools: South Africa’s learners are classified as having among the worst literacy and numeracy levels in the world.
Language barriers and challenges
A major challenge for many children from townships is learning how to read, write, and speak in English, which is often not their mother tongue.
In Grade 4, many learners are having to shift their whole education to another language. 10-year-olds having to suddenly learn another language and learn new names for the concepts they’ve already taken on board presents a significant speed bump in their education journey. As parents of children who are navigating an overstretched and under-resourced public education system, we need to help non-English speaking children learn and practice English at home.
With effective ECD having been directly linked to the reduction of violence and the improvement of safety in communities, it’s clear that focusing on learners’ first five years is truly one of the ways that we can change South Africa’s tragic trajectories of poor education, unemployment, and violence. That’s why so much of Rays of Hope’s focus in Alexandra is on ECD centres.
“We recently acquired our own, the Hlayisanani Day Care Centre, and we support a number of other centres in the township by upskilling the carers in those centres to offer meaningful stimulation to the children in their care. We also support them with food, with nutrition playing an enormous role in the success of any ECD programme,” says Bafana Mohale, education manager at Rays of Hope.
“These programmes cost money, and it’s just about impossible to put a price on the value that we offer and achieve through these programmes: can a price even be put on the potential to lift communities out of poverty and into employment, and to change South Africa’s trajectory of criminal violence?” That’s why Rays of Hope depends on the donations of corporates and individuals who truly understand how we can change the future by fixing the present – and helping our children by giving the meaningful start that they need, to achieve their potential in the future. For more information on Rays of Hope, email info@raysofhope.co.za, or call 066 180 0569 | 011 656 0986.
