WHILE over 800 000 pupils get ready to write matric exams, SunEducation turns the spotlight on the importance of early childhood development.
Innovation Edge has come up with the ECD Heroes Challenge.
Sonja Giese, executive director of Innovation Edge, which seeks to solve early childhood care and education challenges in needy communities, said that quality early childhood development (ECD) was very important.
“The foundations for language development, literacy, numeracy, social skills and higher brain functions are all formed within the brain in the first six years of life.”
Science is studying the importance of positive experiences in the early years, and there is strong evidence to show that children benefit enormously from participating in quality preschool programmes for two years before to starting grade 1. The benefits of ECD are most pronounced for children in under-resourced areas.
A study of more than 1 300 grade R pupils from last year showed that the performance of the poorest children tends to be lowest in all areas of development. And in spite of government’s bold target of achieving universal and equitable ECD by 2030, almost one million of the neediest three to five-year-olds in Mzansi have no access to any early learning programmes or the available programmes are often of poor quality.
“It’s clear that providing universal access to high-quality preschool services gives every child a fair start. Yet it seems the culture is to undervalue or dismiss ECD services and the ECD teachers.”
To make ECD training more accessible, the Heroes Challenge breaks the syllabus down into smaller accessible lessons available on any smart device.
Using an app for the challenge, 500 ECD practitioners will complete 40 action-oriented micro-challenges over the course of an eight-week competition.
The challenge is a fun way for practitioners to reflect on their practice and continue their professional development.
For more information on Innovation Edge and the Heroes Challenge, visit innovationedge.org.za
