Early Childhood Trends in South Africa

03/22/2007

Early Childhood Trends in South Africa

Having a positive mental attitude is asking how something can be done rather than saying it can't be done.
Bo Bennett

Juliana Seleti from South Africa, a participant in the World Forum Global Leaders for Young Children, offers these insights into trends in her country. This excerpt is taken from an article on Global Trends in Early Childhood which will appear in the May 2007 issue of Exchange magazine...

South Africa has over the last twelve years experienced significant transformation in the field of ECD. Most of the transformation has occurred in the area of policy development across the different sectors and government departments that deal with programmes and services for children. Various government and non government collaborations and partnerships at different levels over the years have lead to the production of different policies that are currently influencing ECD trends in the country. The long policy development process in ECD was as a result of the need to redress the Apartheid government ECD status which had very few and discriminatory policies and regulations in place for children.

The new ECD policies, together with other relevant political and economic frameworks, have influenced the ECD trends in the country that are leaning towards:

Supporting and strengthening families and communities as primary caregivers and educators of young children. Different programmes and services are in place through various providers, addressing particularly the needs of orphaned and vulnerable children, especially those affected and infected by HIV and AIDS.
Poverty alleviation through job creation in the ECD sector and increasing of access to quality and equal ECD services as well as provisioning of social grants and subsidies.
Professionalisation of the ECD sector, through the review and development of the ECD qualifications including the development of training programmes and accreditation of private ECD training providers.

World Forum Attracting Global Delegation

Already early childhood professionals from 72 nations have registered for the 2007 World Forum in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. To learn more about this life-changing event, go to www.WorldForumFoundation.org.

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