Increase in Grade R pupils

The number of SA children attending early childhood development (ECD) centres has increased by more than half a million over 15 years.

These children are aged between five and six.

The number of Eastern Cape children enrolled at the ECD centres during the same period has almost doubled.

The minister of the department of basic education (DBE) Angie Motshekga described the increased enrolment as the most dramatic improvement to access to pre-school education.

Speaking at last week’s council of education ministers’ meeting in Pretoria, Motshekga said the number of children enrolled in Grade R in schools had increased from 241,525 in 2001 to 839,515 in 2017.

“The increase was driven mainly by the expansion of the Grade R programme in 2001,” said Motshekga.

In the Eastern Cape only 39.9% of five-year-old children attended school in 2002, That number has since doubled to 88% in 2017, according to a progress report released last month by the provincial education department. During the same period, the number of sixyear-olds attending school improved from 69% to 97%.

The Eastern Cape education department’s deputy directorgeneral (DDG) for education planning, evaluation and monitoring, Penny Vinjevold, said the improvement was very progressive.

“The Eastern Cape was a late starter but we received rapid improvement and expansion in Grade R.

“For those who thought the department was not making progress, this improvement proves otherwise,” said Vinjevold.

Motshekga said taking into consideration government’s 25year review process, early childhood development had been a critical focus area.

Last month in his state of the nation address President Cyril Ramaphosa announced that starting this year, early childhood education was compulsory for at least two years before a child entered Grade 1 and that ECDs would be migrated from the department of social development to be fully immersed in the DBE.

The move to migrate ECDs was welcomed by education MECs, who, however, cited the requisite budgets needed to follow the new mandate.