UWC develops a Higher Certificate in Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) with the College of Cape Town
Professionalising the ECD sector will provide qualifications for those who wish to create and further career paths in ECD
Internationally, there is a growing focus on early childhood education. Various countries have started to prioritise early childhood education as a strategic investment towards the building of a more prosperous society. Notwithstanding its many challenges, South Africa, too, has realised the importance of quality early childhood education programmes in nurturing young children’s holistic development as an important vehicle to enhance our human capital development.
South Africa’s National Development Plan 2030 specifically mentions the importance of quality early childhood development as a means of developing the potential of young children to improve the prospects of future generations.
Formal basic education (Grades R to 12) has been in the spotlight in South Africa for a long time.
Now the focus is being broadened to look at the care and education of young children from birth to before they enter formal schooling.
The Policy on Minimum Requirements for Programmes leading to Qualifications in Higher Education for Early Childhood Development Educators (MRQECDE) defines “early childhood” as the period of human development from birth to the year before a child enters Grade R or formal school.
The national focus on the early childhood sector has also identified a huge need for an updated and relevant curriculum that will support the various programmes being introduced at government level.
The National Integrated Early Childhood Development Policy (NIECD), published by the Department of Social Development in 2015 sets, as a medium-term goal, the availability and accessibility of age-appropriate and developmentally stage-appropriate essential components of a comprehensive, quality Early Childhood Development (ECD) programme for all infants and young children and their caregivers by 2024.
The MRQECDE policy takes cognisance of the fact that the provision of quality ECD services relies on the availability of a committed cadre of appropriately qualified and passionate employees in the sector.
The education sector therefore has a responsibility to:
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Design and offer qualifications that will afford professional status and recognition to ECD educators.
Standardise the training and qualifications of and provide a career pathway for ECD educators.
Develop quality programmes to equip ECD educators with information, knowledge and skills to support the implementation of the NCF (National Curriculum Framework for children from birth to four years).
The aim to professionalise the ECD sector has highlighted the need for qualifications that will create a career path for ECD practitioners and provide opportunities of articulation for those practitioners who want to elevate the status of their qualifications.
In response, the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) and the European Union (EU) have provided South African Higher Education Institutions (HEIS) with funding to develop higher education qualifications specifically aimed at preparing people to teach children from birth to four years.
Technical and Vocational Education and
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Training (TVET) colleges have offered ECD qualifications over the years, but articulation into university programmes has not been easy for many applicants with such qualifications.
It is against this backdrop that the Faculty of Education at the University of the Western Cape (UWC) decided to develop a Higher Certificate in Early Childhood Care and Education in order to provide ECD practitioners access to university education and contribute towards strengthening teaching and learning in the ECD sector.
UWC received funding earlier this year from DHET to develop the Hcert (ECCE) in collaboration with a TVET college, the College of Cape Town (CCT), as part of the Teacher Education for Early Childhood Care and Education Project (TEECCEP), a project supported by the EU and implemented by the DHET.
This certificate will hopefully facilitate articulation into higher level ECD and other programmes being offered by HEIS.
UWC decided to partner with CCT in designing this programme because TVET colleges have vast experience in the design and delivery of ECD qualifications.
Until recently, HEIS primarily offered initial teacher education programmes related to formal education such as the Bachelor of Education (B.ED).
Collaboration between the TVET college and the university will enable the sharing of best practices and add value to the content that will be developed within the new qualification.
There has been a dire lack of collaboration between the various stakeholders who are providing ECD training. This refers to Non-governmental Organisations (NGOS), TVET Colleges and Universities.
This programme will hopefully provide a collective input towards addressing the qualification and challenges that exist in ECD as well as ensuring a clear understanding of the various programmes that are available and how they link together and can create an articulation pathway.
It will also strengthen collaboration between TVET colleges and universities, and capitalise on the strengths of these institutions as game changers in the ECD space.
Although we are still in
the design phase of the programme, it will be possible to co-present the certificate in collaboration with CCT as a means of strengthening closer working relations with CCT and tapping into their history and expertise in ECD.
In other words, the Hcert (ECCE) programme will be based at UWC and we plan to teach it jointly with CCT academic staff.
One of the objectives in the design of the Hcert (ECCE) at UWC is to facilitate articulation into higher ECD programmes, such as the ECD diploma and degree qualifications being offered at other HEIS, and also to articulate into the UWC Bachelor of Education Foundation Phase programme.
We plan to offer the programme in the form of blended learning in order to accommodate the practical component of the curriculum.
We hope to draw from a large pool of applicants from TVET colleges, matriculants, ECD practitioners and those people working in the field who do not have the requisite qualifications and therefore do not fulfil the entrance requirements for higher education admission.
The latter group will follow an RPL (Recognition of Prior Learning) process for admission at UWC.
The funding from the DHET and EU has also made it possible to deepen scholarship in ECD, and some students (including CCT staff) will be receiving bursaries to pursue postgraduate studies in the field of ECD.
This initiative will hopefully contribute to growing a cohort of ECD academics in the country, which currently is sorely needed in order to offer the ECD qualifications at universities across South Africa.
The Faculty of Education at UWC is therefore very thankful for the generous funding and is excited to contribute to the development and professionalisation of the ECD sector in the country.
We look forward to offering the Hcert (ECCE) programme with CCT in 2022.