The recently released Early Childhood Development Census 2021 revealed that the sector needs significant financial and training support.

In addition to infrastructure, the census highlighted several challenges, including the lack of learning material and training.

The census also revealed that only 60% of the ECD programmes surveyed have flush toilets and around a third of all schools do not have taps to supply water for hand washing.

MySchool says that it has consistently provided critical financial support to Breadline Africa since it joined the programme as a beneficiary in 2010.

Breadline Africa is a non-profit organisation that builds:
  • classrooms
  • toilet facilities, and
  • kitchens in pre-schools. 
It also builds primary school libraries across the country to support early childhood education.

"We need to focus on early childhood development now as it is crucial to the success of our country and youth. We have to ensure that we do our children justice in providing them with early learning opportunities in their formative years, which sets the stage for their success at school as well as later in life," says Pieter Twine, general manager at MySchool.

Studies have shown that solid investment in ECD plays a significant role in whether or not children go on to achieve their full potential.

A boost where it's needed most

According to MySchool, the ECD sector has been one of the sectors most impacted by Covid-19 with many nursery schools and crèches having to close their doors due to the severe effects of the lockdowns.

This situation was compounded by the Department of Social Development's delay in paying out money from the R496-million allocated to the sector as part of an employment stimulus relief fund to help it recover, says the duo.

The pandemic also temporarily halted Breadline Africa's infrastructure project as its team couldn't access community projects during the lockdown.

"Upgrading facilities is an important aspect to ensuring ECD centres meet requirements for registration with the Department of Basic Education. Once registered, centres are able to access government funding, which contributes to their sustainability," adds Diane Laugksch, strategic partnerships manager at Breadline Africa.

However, Breadline Africa's goal to erect 1 000 school infrastructure units by 2023 remains on track.

"On average, we have the capacity to place 150 structures per year. Since 1996, Breadline Africa has placed more than 850 structures at community-run projects in resource-poor communities across South Africa. These are predominantly container and prefabricated structures used as classroom, kitchen and toilet facilities at ECD centres and as libraries in quintile one to three (no fee-paying) public primary schools," Laugksch says.

Inadequate and poor ECD facilities impact learner performance

"Children do not learn when they are hungry and many ECD centres do not have adequate kitchen facilities available to prepare meals. Children also do not learn optimally in dark, damp, unsafe, cold, unventilated, draughty, leaking spaces where learning materials and resources are in short supply," adds Laugksch.

Laugksch adds that in 2022 the group hopes to secure funding to place 193 structures in community projects. At some sites, the organisation also hopes to test a range of environmentally sustainable infrastructure solutions.

"As we celebrate our 25-year anniversary in 2022, we are proud to continue our support to Breadline Africa. As one of our longstanding beneficiaries, it shares our commitment in ensuring that our children have access to quality education which they rightfully deserve," concludes Twine.

Over the years, Breadline Africa has allocated funds received from MySchool to upgrade the following at ECD centres across South Africa:
  • classrooms
  • toilets
  • kitchens, and
  • office facilities.
The group concludes that shoppers can continue supporting Breadline Africa every time they swipe their MySchool MyVillage MyPlanet cards at participating retailers and a percentage of their spending will be donated to the organisation.

For more information, visit www.myschool.co.za. Individuals can also follow MySchool on Facebook, Twitter or on Instagram.