Study into plight of NC children
AN ALARMING study on the plight of South African children has given provincial government and the general public plenty of cause for concern despite indication that several programmes are improving the lives of young people in the Northern Cape.
The 2017 South African Child Gauge tracks the status of children in the country on an annual basis, making the latest research evidence accessible to policy-makers and practitioners and to contribute to more effective policy design and implementation for children.
Compiled by the Children’s Institute at the University of Cape Town, the report includes an overview of the latest legislative developments, child-centred indicators, and a collection of short essays by experts in the field.
According to spokesperson for the Northern Cape Department of Education, Geoffrey van der Merwe, there were some pleasing findings to take from the study but the room for improvement was made abundantly clear.
The Northern Cape has seen a 4% increase in school attendance, from 91% in 2002 to 95% in 2015. This is among the greatest improvements of the nine provinces, along with KwaZulu-Natal where attendance increased from 93% to 98% over the same period.
Nationwide, nine out of ten children between the ages of five and six, joined Early Childhood Development (ECD) programmes in 2014 but in direct contrast to the general school attendance statistics, the Northern Cape proved to have the lowest provincial prevalence with an 86% ECD attendance rate.
The highest attendance rates in 2014 were in Limpopo (97%), and Gauteng (95%), while the Western Cape and Northern Cape shared the title as the poorest performing provinces.
This pattern differs from many other indicators, where the Western Cape tended to outperform the poorer and more rural provinces like the Eastern Cape and Limpopo.
Similar patterns were found in analyses of the 2007 Community Survey and the 2008 NIDS data.
With only about half of pupils in the Province likely to complete Grade 9 by the expected age, progression rates in the Province are also among the poorest in the country with statistics indicating that only the Eastern Cape sees more people pushed through into the next grade despite failing two grades in a single phase.
As was expected, the rate of progression through the entire general education and training band (Grades 1 to 9) was lower, as there was more time for children to have repeated or dropped out by Grade 9.
Seventy percent of children aged 16 to 17 years had completed Grade 9 in 2015. This represents an overall improvement of 21 percentage points over the 14-year period, from 48% in 2002.
Provincial variations are slightly more pronounced than for progress through the foundation phase: Gauteng had the highest rate of Grade 9 progression (85%), followed by the Western Cape (76%).
The Northern Cape spokesperson for education said that a massive focus of the department’s various programmes had been on improving and sustaining school attendance at all levels through enhanced accountability and ensuring a classroom environment that is as conducive to both learning and teaching as possible.
Van der Merwe pointed out that while the reported attendance rate indicated that the department was on the right track, there remained a multitude of societal challenges facing children and these were having devastating consequences.
“Our overall learner number in both public and independent schools has increased from 269 423 in 2010 to 291 490 in 2016,” he elaborated, pointing out that four out of five schools in the Province were non-fee paying institutions, benefitting nearly 200 000 children.
“We have allocated an amount of R10 million for an estimated 20 000 pupils that will be exempted from paying school fees.”
“Through the National School Nutrition Programme, we are able to provide a decent meal to 205 525 pupils in Quintile 1 to 3 schools.An additional 56 354 pupils in Quintile 4 to 5 schools receive a daily meal, a situation unique to the Province.”
He added that 29 115 Northern Cape pupils benefit from school transport on 400 routes, another programme contributing to good attendance. “These are pupils who resides more than five kilometres from their nearest school.”
“However, we aware of external factors which negatively impact on the education system. It is socio-economic challenges relating to unemployment, poverty and the moral decay in our society. These challenges impacts on the pupil attendance, alcohol and drug abuse, teenage pregnancy and leading to early drop-outs.”
In an effort to address these challenges, Van der Merwe said that the curriculum was designed and aimed at supporting the cognitive development of pupils to enhance their personal decision making skills for responsible social behavioural conduct.
“In support to the curriculum programme, we engage pupils through various activities, particularly designed to handle all social ills.”
Regarding the progression rate, he explained that policy prevented pupils from being retained in a phase for a period exceeding four years, provided that the underperformance is addressed.
“To support progressed pupils, the Northern Cape Department of Education, is the trendsetter in the country as we are the first to implement a psycho-social programme, which assist us to identify areas for improvement, support pupils and provide them with the necessary skills at school level, that will guarantee success,” he added
“It is our collective responsibility as government and the society at large to protect our children and pupils at all costs to ensure that they complete their school academic career and have access to the opportunities that awaits them.”
While there has generally been decreases in the number and share of children living in the Northern Cape, Free State, Eastern Cape, Limpopo and KwaZulu-Natal, the numbers of children living in Gauteng and Western Cape have risen by 26% and 16% respectively.
This is partly the result of population movement (for example, when children are part of migrant households or move to join existing urban households), and partly the result of natural population growth (new births within the province).
While over 90% of children in the Free State, Gauteng and the Western Cape have an adequate connection, access to water remains a pressing issue in most parts of the country.
According to the report, the significant decline in access to water in the Northern Cape may represent a deterioration in water access, or may be the result of weighting a very small child population but as in most other provinces there is room for improvement.
Access to water remains poor in KwaZulu-Natal (57%), Limpopo (50%) and the Eastern Cape (40%) despite a striking improvement in water provisioning since 2002 (when only 23% of children had water on site) in the latter.
KwaZulu-Natal and the Free State have also recorded significant improvements: the proportion of children who had water on site increased from 45% (2002) to 57% (2015) in KwaZulu-Natal, and from 81% to 93% in the Free State over the same period.
HIV continues to affect one in three people in KwaZulu-Natal, with a prevalence in excess of 36% reported since 2000, the highest in the country.
At the other end of spectrum, with 18% prevalence recorded in 2013, the Northern Cape boasts South Africa’s lowest rate in this regard.
With a fifth of its population HIV positive, Limpopo has the second lowest prevalence.
The Western Cape has had relatively low figures, although the rate has increased by ten percentage points to 19% over the 14-year period since 2000.
A fifth of the Northern Cape’s children do not have enough food with research finding that the province has the greatest prevalence of child hunger of a shocking 21%.
KwaZulu-Natal is second with 20% followed by North West (18%) and the Western Cape (16%).
Together these provinces have over 1.4 million children living in households that report having insufficient food for children.
The Eastern Cape has had the largest decrease between 2002 and 2015, with reported child hunger having reduced by 38 percentage points from 49% to 11% over the 14-year period. Limpopo has a large rural child population with high rates of unemployment and income poverty, yet child hunger has remained well below the national average, reported at 4% in 2015.
To read the full report, visit: http://www.ci.uct.ac.za/ci/ child-gauge/2017