Early Childhood Development
WHAT is Early Childhood Development? (ECD)
ECD is an approach that is aimed at ensuring the protection of the rights of children from birth to 8 years through providing programmes that give children the resources to develop to their full potential – emotionally, physically, socially and cognitively – and to provide assistance to the families of the children benefitting from the programmes (UNICEF, 2001).
WHY ECD?
We noticed that many small children (too young to attend school) are left largely to their own devices, with minimal parental supervision. Not only this, many children enrolled in school do not know any of the basics as their parents do not have the resources to teach their children shapes and colours. Our model combines two aspects of addressing this issue: the placement of young children in a safe, educational environment for half a day; and the psycho-education and social support of the parents of these children to ensure the child is growing up with enough resources and support to thrive in school later on.
WHAT WE DO:
We run two Playschool classes (based at primary schools) where our trained ECD practitioners facilitate Early Learning to give children a head-start on the basics to succeed in school. There are between 30-35, 4-5 year old children, in each class and they attend for a year. Each year we have a new group of young children that are in our programme and off the streets! Our partnerships with the primary schools ensure that the children are guaranteed a place in Grade R when they are ready.
The principals at the schools both welcome our programme and have stated that there is a marked difference between the children that have attended the ECD programme and those that have not in terms of their academic performance and their general school readiness.
Kabouter Drome Playschool (translated: ‘gnome/pixie dreams’) is based at Klipfontein Primary School in Netreg, Bonteheuwel. The playschool is in a refurbished shipping container on the school property near to the playground.
Vrolike Groepe Playschool (translated: ‘joyful/jolly group’) is based at Edward Primary School in Matroosfontein. The playschool is situated in a previously unutilised classroom near to the Grade R classrooms. We provide social work services to the families of the children attending the playschool classes. The school day runs from 8AM- 12PM and the children receive breakfast and a light lunch or snack.
