Northern Cape sees significant improvement in early childhood development

A RECENT study on early childhood development (ECD) in the Northern Cape has shown a marked improvement in children's developmental progress over the past three years. The research, commissioned by two solar plants in Kimberley and De Aar, assessed children aged four to five and found encouraging results.

The study used the Early Learning Outcome Measure to assess children across five developmental domains.

The results show that:

89% of children are on track in Gross Motor Development

88% are on track in Emergent Literacy and Language

82% are on track in Cognitive & Executive Functioning

77% are on track in Emergent Numeracy & Mathematics

60% are on track in Fine Motor Co-ordination & Visual Motor Integration

The Northern Cape Department of Basic Education (NCDOE) has commended the initiative, stating that research of this nature strengthens ECD services through quality assurance and gap identification.

"We greatly appreciate and welcome the contribution that these two solar plants have made in continuing to seek ways to strengthen early learning, with a special focus on ECD, in the Northern Cape Province," said NCDOE Directors Basie Mathane and Mercia Fanie.

According to Tandaza Teka, Economic Development Specialist for both Droogfontein Solar Power and De Aar Solar Power, the results represent an over 40% overall increase in just three years. This is a significant improvement from the 2022 'Thrive by 5 Index', which reported that only 37.4% of children in the Northern Cape were developmentally on track.

The NCDOE noted that this initiative contributes to the attainment of universal access to quality ECD, prioritising vulnerable children, as proposed by the South African Government in its vision and impact statement for 2030.

• These ECD performance assessments were conducted across several months in 2024 by accredited and independent assessors, and facilitated by Custoda Trust, a registered and accredited training and development service provider. The full reports are available on the plant websites here: https://deaarsolar.co.za/childrens-readiness-report/ and https://droogfonteinsolar.co.za/childrens-readiness-report/