It’s challenging to read through The South African Early Childhood Review (SAECR) 2024 without shedding a few tears. The number of children living in poverty in South Africa is a crisis that directly impacts children's ability to thrive and reach their potential. According to the review, a staggering 15,000 children required hospitalisation due to severe acute malnutrition in 2022/23 - this is almost double the number of children suffering from malnutrition as a result of the war in Gaza.
Stunting affects over a quarter of children under five in South Africa, impacting physical and cognitive development. Stunted children are more likely to start school with developmental delays, perform poorly academically, and face higher unemployment rates as adults. Over 60% (4.2 million) of children under six are in households that are too poor to afford their basic needs, and nearly 40% are in households living below the food poverty line (SAECR, 2024).
On a positive note, poor learner outcomes are not inevitable for poor children who are given the opportunity to attend a quality early learning programme. High-quality programmes can and do significantly improve early learning outcomes for poor children in South Africa. Roughly 68% of children aged 3-5 years attend an early learning programme in South Africa (SAECR, 2024), but the quality of stimulation differs drastically between well-resourced and poorly-resourced programmes. Achieving access to quality at scale will require far greater investment in both material and human resources.
