Source document: https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/1694845761655.pdf (South Africa)
Child Development in South Africa Getting from where we are to where we need to be Nic Spaull Associate Professor of Economics Stellenbosch University Parliament-UNICEF Webinar - 15 November 2021 Child Development From pregnancy to the world of work Source: South African Early Childhood Review 2019 Nurturing Care Framework Hunger How many children go hungry in South Africa?

How many children go hungry in SA?

15% 8% How many children went hungry in 2020/21?


Child hunger remains extremely high at 14% in the past week in April/May 2021 Hunger sems to have stabilised at a new (higher) rate both for adults and children.

Approximately 10-million people and 3-million children were in households aﬀected by weekly hunger in April/May 2021.
(Wittenberg & Branson, 2021) Source: Van der Berg et al., 2021 (using NIDS-CRAM Wave 5 data) 1-in-4 children under ﬁve in South Africa are stunted (27%) Stunting is when a child has low height for their age, usually due to malnutrition, repeated infections and poor social stimulation Education How many children pass matric and/or get a degree?

OPPORTUNITIES FOR EARLY LEARNING From Creche to College Where do the wheels come off?

11 How many students actually make it to university?
How many of those who start school reach matric?

Graduate with matric?

Graduate with a degree?

RESEP study followed the entire matric cohort of 2008 into university and tracked them 2009-2014 (Van Broekhuizen & Van der Berg, 2016) How many students actually make it to university?

How many students actually make it to university?

How many students actually make it to university?

How many students actually make it to university? }
78% of Gr4 children cannot read for meaning in any language Source: Van Broekhuizen & Van der Berg, 2016 (Higher Education Access and Outcomes for the 2008 National Matric Cohort) What about before school?

How many kids access ECD centers or programs and how many of those receive government subsidy?
• Low access: Half (49%) of children aged 0-5 do not access any ECD program (center/other) • Low subsidies: Of the 6,5mil children aged 0-5 only 630,000 (10%) receive a partial subsidy (for Primary School it is 96%+) Of the 6,5mil children aged 0-5 years, how many access ECD programs?

10% 49% 27% 14% Source: Ilifa Labantwana CGC Meeting COVID Response, 2020 Ages 3-5 Assessments of children aged 3-5 (ELOM) show that 71% of children did not reach the developmental thresholds for their age.
Source SA Early Childhood Review 2019 page 39.

Spending How much do we spend on schooling vs ECD?

For every R100 we spend on Basic Education we only spend R1 on ECD.

Basic Education ECD How much does government spend on Basic Education vs ECD?

R255 Billion R3,5 Billion (1,3%) 2021 SA Basic Education Expenditure (Treasury, 2021) 2021 SA ECD Expenditure (Treasury, 2021) What are the implications?
• No training: 70% of ECD practitioners have no training or qualifications whatsoever (Kotze, 2015: p.4 using ECD Audit 2013 data) • Low wages: The average ECD-practitioner earns less than minimum wage (<R3000/mo).

1/10th what a Grade 1 teacher is paid (Kotze, 2015: p.4 using ECD Audit 2013 data) Take home points… 1.

Stunting: 1-in-4 young children (<5yrs) are stunted (27%) compromising their futures.

2.
2.

Access: Only 10% of young children (0-5yrs) are in a government-subsidized ECD program (R17 per child per day).

3.

Funding: For every R100 spent on Basic Education, only R1.37 is spent on ECD (1,3%) The lack of funding for ECD is the binding constraint to progress.

Possible avenues for Strengthening Parliament Nic Spaull & Poppie Ntaka 1.

Ensuring Effective Oversight 1.1.


Tracking the Progress or Implementation of Recommendations and Resolutions • Issue: Parliament does not have a standardised approach or system for tracking, monitoring and evaluating the implementation of its recommendations and resolutions.
For instance, once the Committee report is adopted and published in the Announcement, Tablings and Committee Report (ATC) and it becomes a resolution in the House(s), little is done to ensure that the executive adequately responds/addresses these resolutions as no follow-ups are made by the House(s) and Committees.
• Possibility: A formal tracking system needs to be established- Within 3 months of tabling the Committee report, the executive needs to respond to each recommendation stating what action will be taken or has been taken, which division or individual will be responsible for carrying out the action and the timeframe of the implementation plan.

At the end of each quarter, the Committee needs to also report on the implementation status of the recommendations it made.
Similarly, legacy reports, oversight visit reports and the budgetary review and recommendations report (BRRR) should also include a discussion on the implementation status of any recommendations made in the previous year(s), where the annual report is also updated to include this tracking of recommendations and resolutions as a performance target.

The Parliamentary Monitoring Group (PMG) online page should update its tabs to include “status of recommendations” for each Committee.

1.2.
1.2.

Co-ordination between Committees • Issue: Committees tend to work in silos even in cases where there are cross-cutting issues.

This is evident in the Committee meetings, oversight visits and report-back sessions.

An example of this is the issue of scholar transport, where there is little co-ordination between the PC on Transport and PC of Basic Education.
• Proposal: To avoid duplication of responsibilities and to foster collaboration between Committees, there should be joint programme and oversight visit planning as well as compiling BRRRs.

If an issue is relevant to more than one Committee, a joint oversight visit report-back session/briefing should be scheduled prior to the finalisation and adoption of the report.
Establish a portal for reporting all oversight visits disaggregated by sector, province/municipality, current and outstanding issues, year and status of recommendation.

The portal should be accessible to the public.

2.

Enhancing Public Participation • Issue: In its oversight activities, Committees mostly rely on the information provided by the Government Departments/Entities it is trying to hold accountable.

There is limited input from independent stakeholders.
• Proposal: In preparation for the BRRR, Committees need to consider input from other independent stakeholders in the field.

This could be done through public hearings or sending invitations to relevant stakeholders/independent researchers to brief the Committee on, for example, current matters affecting the Basic Education sector.

The invitations should be sent out before the start of the 4th term so as to give stakeholders enough time to prepare in-depth reports.
Input from independent stakeholders could also be considered when the Department presents its quarterly performance reports to the Committee.

3.

Capacity- Building • Issue: Training aimed at improving researching tools and skills is limited.

• Proposal: Partner up with local universities and research institutions- For example, data analysis workshops using relevant education datasets can be held, joint research projects, seminars etc.

4.
4.

Other Observations • Issue: No legislation was referred to the PC on Basic Education for processing during the 5th term.

The Committee indicated that the reason there was a delay in processing the draft Basic Education Amendment Laws Bill (BELA) was because it had received a high volume of public submissions.

• Proposal: A formal guideline outlining how to deal with high volumes of public submissions needs to be established.
For example, extended research and committee section support can be requested from other Committees.

Committee needs to outline in its legacy report how many submissions it was able to go through and how many were outstanding.

Thank you.
Thank you.

Additional slides for Q&A… Get degree Enter University 1 in 25 (4%) 1 in 10 (12%) Matric 4 in 10 (40%) Get a degree Do not get a degree Access university Don’t access university Pass matric Dropout or fail matric Education in SA 1(994-2020) Source: Siyaphambili, 2021 33 Matric + 34 Further education 35 Higher Diploma, Degree, Postgrad 36