Orlando West, Soweto 12 December 2000
Chairperson
Distinguished Guests
Ladies and Gentleman
Boys and Girls,
It gives me great pleasure to be here today with my colleagues and friends to help launch the State of the World’s Children Report for 2001.
As many of you have probably guessed by my presence here, the theme of the Report is education. And more specifically, the Report centres around one of the areas identified as a priority within the Department of Education – that of early childhood development, or ECD.
There is no doubt that children are our future. If children’s basic needs are not met in their early years of development, they will be ill-equipped to develop into healthy, competent and well-balanced adults. Backed by strong scientific evidence that early childhood care has a disproportionate importance in overall human development, UNICEF uses the State of the World’s Children 2001 Report to urge governments to focus on the world’s youngest citizens in a comprehensive manner. UNICEF cites prenatal care, sound nutrition, health and psychosocial care, clean water, adequate sanitation, basic education and cognitive stimulation as birthrights of every child, and urges governments and communities to fulfil these rights through a single “package” of services for children aged 0-3.
It is indeed true that early care and nurturing have a decisive and lasting impact on how children grow to adulthood and how they develop their ability to learn and their capacity to regulate their emotions. The foundation for their future health and resilience, and their social, emotional and sense of identity is laid in the first years. When infants are held, cuddled and touched in soothing ways, they thrive physically, emotionally and spiritually. Warm, responsive care seems to have a protective function, to some extent ‘immunizing’ an infant against the effects of stress and illness experienced later in life.
While it is certainly possible to overcome, to some extent, the barriers that are sometimes laid down in the early years, it becomes increasingly difficult. Children whose basic needs are not met in infancy and early childhood are often distrustful and have difficulty believing in themselves and in others. Children who do not receive loving guidance in monitoring or regulating their behaviour during the early years have a greater chance of being anxious, frightened, impulsive and behaviourally disorganized when they reach school. The loving care and nurture children receive in their first years – or the lack of these critical experiences – leave lasting imprints on young minds as well as influencing the development of their physical bodies.
I think we all have a sense of what ECD is – some of you may be care givers who look after young children, others, I can see, are activists who have lobbied for greater funding and more attention to be directed towards ECD. And others – our children with us today – participate and benefit from early childhood care and development.
This Report defines the “early” in ECD as all of us do to children from birth to 9 years of age. Therefore “early”, in terms of childhood development, begins before our conscious memories have been formed and before our first years in school.
For many of us, ECD means reception-year programmes and crèches. And we know that those years are a precious time in any child’s life. But when we think of ECD, the years from birth to the age of 3 must also be at the forefront of our thinking and planning.
When a child is born, there are a host of things that we as parents and caregivers know we must do – we give the child a name, we register his or her birth, and we feed and clothe that child.
What we are now learning from science – that most brain development happens before a child reaches the age of 3 – confirms what many of us, as parents and communities, have practiced instinctively. In those first 36-months, a child is developing and growing, and the actions taken in those critical years affect the rest of a child’s life. I think it cannot be stressed enough – those first three years have an overwhelming importance in overall human development.
So what does this mean for us as caregivers and educators in South Africa? We must make a conscious shift to include children from birth to 3 years into our understanding of ECD, we can make a world of difference in the lives of our children. We do not need very expensive schemes to provide a quality ECD system, through simple, low-cost interventions we can help create a firm foundation for children. Earlier today, you all saw first-hand what is possible – how a project like Impilo can transform the lives of children, their families and their communities. And that is what we are talking about.
And even though I’m here as Minister of the Department of Education, and ECD is a priority in our department, state departments are working together to ensure the holistic development of a child – that means issues such as nutrition, education, clean water, and immunisation, to name a few, must be prioritised. This holistic development is key to the National Programme of Action for Children in the Presidency as well as our policy initiatives. And it calls for continued inter-sectoral collaboration.
The rest of the world and in particular here in South Africa we face a great challenge to ensure that all children have a right to mental, social and emotional development with HIV/AIDS. Parents may not be around and we will depend on caregivers and communities to ensure the fulfilment of the rights of all these children. We all need to come together to fill in where the biological parents and communities cannot do so.
By working together and prioritising Early Childhood, as my government has, we will empower our communities and families and see the realisation of early childhood development.
In South Africa since 1994, individual departments have been putting policy in place to protect children’s rights. The Education White Paper (1994), states that Early Childhood Development (which includes the ages from birth to 9 years old) requires inter-sectoral collaboration. This White Paper also promised 10 years of compulsory education beginning with a Reception Year. In 1997 the Department of Education launched the National ECD Pilot Project. This project was designed to test the interim ECD policy, particularly related to the implementation of a compulsory Reception Year. The findings and the experiences gained during the Pilot Project will help us to further develop the ECD policy. The National Programme of Action was established through the office of the President to co-ordinate the efforts of different government and non-government role-players in meeting our child rights commitments. Provincial programmes of action are being developed and plans are in place to take this to the local level.
Our next and most urgent challenge is to work together to ensure that we have a national integrated policy that takes into account all the needs of the young child. We must find creative approaches to integrated service delivery that builds an inter-sectoral safety net to support all families and especially those in deep poverty. This partnership must include all relevant national and provincial departments, especially, Education, Social Development, Health, Safety and Security, as well as local government.
In his Medium Term Expenditure Budget Policy Statement on the 30th October 2000, the Minister of Finance, Mr. Trevor Manual, made special reference to the need to “provide for continued investment in early childhood development initiatives”. He allocated R250 million to the Department of Education to increase our access to the poorest children in the community.
Tirisano notes that we must equip our youth to meet the social and economic needs of the 21st century. It is a simple point, but one that requires much forethought. I think many of us when we hear the term “THE 21st CENTURY” we think of tomorrow or next year or maybe 5 years from now. For me, the 21st Century is the future in the broadest sense of the term – 5 years, 10 years, even 75 years down the line. If what we imagine when we think of the future is a prosperous nation for our children, our grand children and our great grandchildren, then we must invest in our children today.
Early Childhood care is a solid investment. Children who have received early care and participated in community pre-school programmes are less likely to drop out of school, repeat grades or suffer illnesses. By investing in our youngest citizens today, we will all reap the benefits in the future because ECD not only affects a child’s development, but it also impacts on how a country progresses.
Another priority of Tirisano is that schools must become the centres of community life. With a focus on ECD and the development of our youngest citizens, I think what we must see that our communities must become the centre of life for children and dedicate ourselves in a more deliberate manor to make child development a reality for ALL children.
The focus of the State of the World’s Children 2001 report is not new to us in South Africa, but a very important reminder along the road to implementing a new integrated system of ECD provisioning that ensures that the rights of all children are protected and that together we can build a strong and healthy nation. It is a timely reminder that investing in young children is an important way to ensure that every child has the opportunity to reach his or her full potential and that investing in early childhood development is essential for making real gains in education, economic development, crime reduction and debt reduction.
In South Africa too, the three key challenges, poverty, violence and HIV/Aids continue to take their toll on humanity with women and children being the most vulnerable. This must not deter us from our objectives, but spur us on to greater investment in children and families. But equally important is approaching child rights as an indivisible whole and developing integrated and multi-dimensional programmes deeply rooted within communities so that we can blend what is the best environment for children with an understanding of traditional child-rearing practices.
I affirm our government commitment to supporting the urgent call for a comprehensive and integrated legal framework that enables partnership between all government and non-government ECD role players in meeting the basic needs of all young children, and especially those in the earliest crucial years.
I thank you.