The Department of Basic Education (DBE) has provided an update about the Early Childhood Development (ECD) Census that it has undertaken.

“The Department of Basic Education has commissioned the ECD Census 2021 to collect data on all Early Childhood Development programmes in the country to better understand the early childhood development landscape in South Africa. The Department of Basic Education has adopted play-based learning as a fundamental principle,” reads a description of the programme from the government.

“Working with the LEGO Foundation, UNICEF and various stakeholders active in the ECD space, the South African government is supporting policies to bring play-based learning into classrooms and pre-school facilities nationwide. The partners want to understand how best to unlock the power of play to learn and invest in the future during the earliest stages of children’s development.”

According to this PDF brochure of the programme, fieldworkers collect data in a manner that takes “no longer” than one hour. This is broken down into two 30 minute segments with a basic information interview and a facility observation.

While that may not sound like it would take a long time to complete, the progress reported so far shows just how much manpower even a 60 minute visit would need when multiplied across the country:

• 38 000 ECD programmes counted so far.
• 1 400 000 children enrolled in ECD programmes.
• 170 000 staff employed in ECD programmes.
• 75 percent of programmes counted in South Africa.
• 15th December is the expected finalisation date for field work.

Once 15th December rolls around and all the data is collected, that is not the end of the process as this then needs to be translated into information that the government can use.

The ECD Census 2021 has five expected outcomes according to this factsheet (also a PDF available here).

These outcomes are intended to provide verified information about the following:

“1. Geographical spread of ECD programmes
2. Number of staff and number of children
3. Registration status of ECD programmes
4. Contextual challenges facing ECD programmes
5. Basic indicators on learning through play.”

Of note here is that there’s no mention of how online education is factored into ECD. The pandemic still shows no sign of ending, especially with the newly discovered omicron variant and the recent surge in positive COVID-19 cases in the country.

Hopefully the government and the aforementioned partners on this project consider the affect of the pandemic on CED when drawing conclusions about the research. Unlike older students who can more effectively be educated from home, the younger ones can not.

[Image – Department of Basic Education]
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