Improving Quality: Lessons from South Africa

Southern Africa Regional Conference on ECDE Pretoria December 2013

Linda Biersteker research@elru.co.za

Public Quality Provisions• Services for under 5s: Children’s Act requires programme

registration (as well as facility registration for centres) • Grade R (preschool year 5 – 6 year olds) registration norms

and standards and funding criteria. New draft policy specifies post provisioning and phase in of Diploma or B Ed by 2019

• Curriculum: Under 5s ELDS and Draft Curriculum Framework Grade R: Curriculum & Assessment Policy Statement • Moves to professionalise and register practitioners working

with under 5s. Those in Pre-primary registered.• State supported qualifications training at Secondary and Post

secondary level 45 570 over last four years • ZAR 335 million training budget for teachers working with

under 5s in 2013/4

Background on quality in SA• Many family and home based programmes (Home

visiting, playgroups, parent education) not evaluated and/or when scaled implementation supervision often compromised

• Many ECD programmes and services under 5 years unregistered (can’t meet standards)

• Generally Grade R and centre quality not high (poorest for poor children, babies and toddlers)

• No incentives/ system to improve beyond basic registration level.

Lessons from the field 1

• A Maths and Science improvement project in Grade R (preschool) classes in two districts

Statistically significant changes over 3 years on ECERS-R and ECERS-E subscales

Training challengesThe learning environment was not established …..

Intervention strategies

Skills Training: Workshops ( ½ day - 5 days) Experiential Learning Implementation tasks

Outings Site support visits (3 per year)Learning groups

Lessons• Needed a good basic programme in place before maths and

science teaching could improve.

• Suitable maths and science activities and equipment were basis for

improving those areas of the curriculum.

• Small group teaching enabled facilitation of language and

reasoning

• Subject knowledge (especially science) is essential

• The role of personal growth in providing the confidence to teach was

emphasised over and over again

• It takes time to internalise change

Lessons from the field 2 • Local and indigenous knowledge to inform

ECDE programming

http://elru.co.za/programmes/papers-and-conferences/

“ Working with the community, I didn’t know they have a lot of information but today we get it. I was surprised at the level of participation from people in the sessions, they were not shy but spoke, did everything.”

“It was important to me because of family empowerment, working directly with caregivers, finding how to involve grannies.”

“To understand the community I am working with is important

because of our outreach programmes, understanding the values as well as the culture.”

Current OSISA research with HSRC focusing on local knowledge to inform programming and advocacy

Possible elements of a quality improvement system• Develop differentiated indicators for adequate, good and

excellent for all types of ECDE service• On registration ECDE service assessed (including parent input)

and enters quality improvement programme with improvement plan

• District level mentoring & support (workshops, support groups)

• Service provider: self assessment process and regular reflections on practice

• Service & practitioner accreditation to stimulate ongoing improvement

• Periodic programme evaluations linked to child outcomes • All of this has to be supported by a process to improve wages

& working conditions of practitioners