Durban - With 240 000 children in KwaZulu-Natal enrolled in Grade R, the provincial government would focus on ensuring that teachers in the all-important early childhood development phase were suitably qualified, Education MEC Peggy Nkonyeni announced during her 2015/16 budget speech on Tuesday.
Tabling her budget in the provincial legislature in Pietermaritzburg, she committed almost R700 million of her R42 billion budget to early childhood development. The money will be spent on having unqualified preschool teachers enrolled at training colleges, on curriculum training, and providing furniture and learning material for classrooms.
Early childhood development has been a priority for Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga’s administration. Motshekga has previously said that this phase of schooling is a potential “game changer” for education in South Africa.
Research released last year has driven home just how critical improving teacher quality in early childhood education is.
The research, using data from 18 102 South African schools, revealed that instead of reducing educational inequalities, Grade R had further widened the gap between children from impoverished and affluent schools.
The potential of the government’s early learning investment, to see children overcome the disadvantages of a poor home environment, was negated by problems, including teacher capacity.
The research, commissioned by the Department of Performance Monitoring and Evaluation in the Presidency, and Motshekga’s department, measured the impact of the introduction of Grade R on a child’s learning later in life.
Conducted by the Research on Socio-Economic Policy Unit at Stellenbosch University, it found that there was “virtually no measurable impact” at South Africa’s poorest schools (quintiles one to three).
The results were better at schools which were, generally, achieving well, in quintiles four and five, and in schools in Gauteng, the Northern Cape and the Western Cape.
Nkonyeni also announced the other priority areas on which she would spend this year’s budget, including:
* Merging small and “non-viable” schools.
* Reimbursing fee-charging schools who grant fee exemptions to pupils of financially struggling families.
* Providing meals to 2.2 million children through the government feeding scheme.
* Introducing sign language at 11 schools.
* Providing a reliable water supply, electricity, and decent sanitation to 100 schools.
* Filling vacant subject adviser and circuit manager posts.
DA MPL Mbali Ntuli, in her assessment of Nkonyeni’s speech, said a bigger budget did not mean standards would improve, because of the lack of accountability within Nkonyeni’s department.
Ntuli was particularly incensed that Nkonyeni had not yet tabled the report of the committee which had been appointed to probe the department’s financial management.
The Mercury