Cape Town - The Department of Basic Education’s national curriculum framework for children younger than four will be put to the test in 100 Early Childhood Development (ECD) centres from September.
Troy Martens, spokeswoman for Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga, said the 100 centres across the country would participate in the pilot project before the national curriculum framework would be made available for registered ECD centres next year.
Motshekga announced the roll out of the framework this week. She said a legislative review to make schooling compulsory for children aged five to 15, instead of the current seven to 15, was on the cards.
“The national curriculum framework for children, birth to 4 years, describes the competencies that babies, toddlers and young children hope to and need to develop,” Martens said. “It is about the totality of experiences that children from birth to four will have in a range of different settings.”
She said these included experiences initiated by adults, those which were not consciously planned by adults (incidental learning) and those created by children “in order to make sense of their world”. “The aim of the national curriculum framework is to help every child develop knowledge, skills, attitudes and behaviours for life, learning, schooling and work.”
Martens said ECD specialists Professor Hasina Ebrahim and Margaret Irvine were contracted to write the first draft, with support from Unicef. Consultations were held in all provinces and the second draft was gazetted for public comment. Comments received were considered for the final document.
Martens said the national curriculum framework would help to evaluate and support programmes offered by daycare and ECD centres.
The age ranges covered in the national curriculum framework were babies (birth to 18 months), toddlers (18 months to 36 months) and young children (three to four years). She said the approach followed would not be formal schooling but “a well-structured programme, which is play based”.
ECD experts have cautioned that the framework should not overlook the importance of play.
Cape Argus