The Challenges Experienced by Practitioners from Under-Resourced Early Childhood Development Centres in South Africa: A Single Site Study

Abstract

BACKGROUND: The occupation of education prepares children for adulthood. Each child has the right to education, which has the power to end intergenerational cycles of poverty and inequality. However, poor access to and quality of education at early childhood development (ECD) centres continue to prevail in marginalised communities in South Africa AIM: This study aimed to identify the challenges experienced by ECD practitioners and coordinators regarding the quality of their ECD programme METHODS: A qualitative, descriptive enquiry was conducted with six purposively sampled participants from an ECD organisation in South Africa. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with practitioners from under-resourced ECD centres from Bloemfontein, rural towns, and the organisation's ECD coordinator. Audio recordings of the interviews were transcribed verbatim. Deductive content analysis was used to analyse the data RESULTS: Four themes were identified from interview data: (i) teaching and learning; (ii) management and leadership; (iii) ECD environment; and (iv) ECD legislation and policies. Practitioners indicated that they wanted to improve their qualifications and have access to a contextually relevant programme with appropriate resources CONCLUSION: If the expressed challenges were addressed on an inter-professional collaborative platform, the quality of this ECD service could be improved Keywords: Teaching and learning; early childhood development; ECD policy and legislation; ECD practitioners; ECD programme; occupational therapy; South Africa.

Decent work, capabilities and flourishing at work

“…Quality early childhood development (ECD) is essential to ensure the sustainable development of countries (Cumming and Wong, 2019). As a result of poverty, inequality, inadequate resources and inaccessibility, ECD programs remain inaccessible in South Africa (Visser et al , 2021). Total expenditure on ECD in 2020/2021 was equivalent to 0.5% of total public expenditure and 0.15% of Gross Domestic Product (Dulvy et al , 2022).…”

“…Teachers must constantly deal with a lack of resources, poor infrastructure at centres and children who grew up in deprived circumstances (Baloyi and Makhubela, 2018). Additionally, poor management of government services exacerbates the problems related to early childhood education (Smit et al , 2021; Visser et al , 2021). The factors mentioned above necessitate research regarding the well-being of early childhood teachers (Cumming, 2017; Hall-Kenyon et al , 2014).…”

Priorities for access to early childhood development services for children with disabilities in South Africa

“…According to the General Household Survey (Department of Basic Education 2019), participation of 0-4-year-olds in ECD programmes in South Africa has increased from 8% in 2002 to 44% in 2018. However, inequalities in early learning opportunities in general abound, which is attributed to a lack of teaching resources, the worrying children to teacher ratio of 1:31, the poor infrastructure of ECD centres, more than one million children aged 3-5 years not attending ECD centres and the fact that formal education before the age of 7 years was not compulsory until 2020, amongst other factors (Department of Social Development 2015;Visser et al 2021). Moreover, little is known about ECD services for children with disabilities in South Africa.…”

Physical well-being of four-year-old learners and their readiness for Grade R.

“…• some two-thirds of children eligible for ECD programmes do not have access to them (Visser et al, 2021).…”

“…To support this mandate, the education system requires appropriately qualified practitioners in the ECCE domain to meet this demand. However, generally in rural settings there is an alarming shortage of well-qualified practitioners in ECCE centres (Visser et al, 2021) (Barnard & Braund, 2016). Therefore, a stern monitoring of the sector as well as ensuring that ECCE practitioners are appropriately qualified was suggested by the findings.…”