Transcript Improving Quality: Lessons from South Africa

Improving Quality: Lessons from
South Africa
Southern Africa Regional Conference on ECDE Pretoria
December 2013
Linda Biersteker
[email protected]
Public Quality Provisions
• Services for under 5s: Children’s Act requires programme
registration (as well as facility registration for centres)
• Grade R (preschool year 5 – 6 year olds) registration
norms and standards and funding criteria. New draft
policy specifies post provisioning and phase in of
Diploma or B Ed by 2019
• Curriculum: Under 5s ELDS and Draft Curriculum
Framework
Grade R: Curriculum & Assessment Policy Statement
• Moves to professionalise and register practitioners
working with under 5s. Those in Pre-primary registered.
• State supported qualifications training at Secondary and
Post secondary level 45 570 over last four years
• ZAR 335 million training budget for teachers working
with under 5s in 2013/4
Background on quality in SA
• Many family and home based programmes
(Home visiting, playgroups, parent education) not
evaluated and/or when scaled implementation
supervision often compromised
• Many ECD programmes and services under 5
years unregistered (can’t meet standards)
• Generally Grade R and centre quality not high
(poorest for poor children, babies and toddlers)
• No incentives/ system to improve beyond basic
registration level.
Lessons from the field 1
• A Maths and Science improvement project in
Grade R (preschool) classes in two districts
Statistically significant changes over 3 years on
ECERS-R and ECERS-E subscales
Training challenges
The learning environment was not
established …..
Intervention strategies
Skills Training:
 Workshops ( ½ day - 5 days)
 Experiential Learning
 Implementation tasks
Outings
Site support visits (3 per year)
Learning groups
Lessons
•
Needed a good basic programme in place before maths and
science teaching could improve.
• Suitable maths and science activities and equipment were
basis for improving those areas of the curriculum.
•
Small group teaching enabled facilitation of language and
reasoning
• Subject knowledge (especially science) is essential
• The role of personal growth in providing the confidence to
teach was emphasised over and over again
• It takes time to internalise change
Lessons from the field 2
• Local and indigenous knowledge to inform
ECDE programming
http://elru.co.za/programmes/papers-andconferences/
“ Working with the community, I didn’t know they have a lot of
information but today we get it. I was surprised at the level of
participation from people in the sessions, they were not shy but
spoke, did everything.”
“It was important to me because of family empowerment,
working directly with caregivers, finding how to involve
grannies.”
“To understand the community I am working with is important
because of our outreach programmes, understanding the
values as well as the culture.”
Current OSISA research with HSRC focusing
on local knowledge to inform programming
and advocacy
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Possible elements of a quality improvement system
Develop differentiated indicators for adequate, good
and excellent for all types of ECDE service
On registration ECDE service assessed (including
parent input) and enters quality improvement
programme with improvement plan
District level mentoring & support (workshops,
support groups)
Service provider: self assessment process and regular
reflections on practice
Service & practitioner accreditation to stimulate
ongoing improvement
Periodic programme evaluations linked to child
outcomes
All of this has to be supported by a process to improve
wages & working conditions of practitioners