In her presentation, Dr Janeli Kotze, ECD Director, provided an update on key developments in Early Childhood Development (ECD), outlining the 2030 Strategy for ECD Programmes for universal quality access, prioritising the most vulnerable children. Currently, 1.3 million 3-5-year-olds are not attending an ECD programme. She took online delegates through the Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) journey, subsidy allocations, along with insights from the Thrive-By-Five 2024 Index Findings for each province. Dr Kotze indicated that the Bana Pele Registration Drive has, during the past 18 months been focussing on bronze registration and will, this year, be concentrating on the silver and gold roadmap approval process, using the updated eCares Dashboard.
Dr Kotze presented Early Learning Index 2024 findings for the Northern Cape, Gauteng and Limpopo Provinces comparing Emergent Literacy and Language; Gross Motor Development; Emergent Numeracy and Mathematics; Cognition and Executive Functioning; and Fine Motor and Visual Motor Integration to indicate the proportion of children on track, falling behind and falling far behind, as well as stunting rates. These provinces now have an opportunity to build on the foundations, whilst addressing the persistent gaps that hold too many children back. Many of the issues identified align closely with national trends, indicating that the province is contending with the same systemic barriers affecting early learning across South Africa. A detailed set of evidence-based priority actions to address these challenges is available in the National Thrive by Five recommendations brief.
The presentation on Foundational Learning (Language and Literacy), Dr Nompumelelo Mohohlwane, Director for Reading in the Foundations for Learning Chief Directorate, outlined the South African National Literacy Strategy and Plan: 2024-2030 with key language interventions and support programmes. The new National Home Language Reading Programme (NHLPR), a nationally coordinated, evidence-based intervention, aims to strengthen the teaching and learning of home language reading in the Foundation Phase. The programme establishes a coherent national framework to support effective early grade reading instruction, particularly in African Languages. In respect of Language and Literacy Across the Curriculum, the second programme, Language Across the Curriculum, will focus on Social Sciences. Recent PED engagement meetings, and monitoring data revealed persistently poor learner performance in Social Sciences with low achievement levels and significant gaps in conceptual understanding and uneven progression across grades, which collectively point to systemic challenges in teaching and learning. Capacity building workshops are being organised for PEDs and District Subject Advisors to address these challenges in Geography and History as part of the programme.
Ms Asiya Hendricks, DBE’s Project Manager for Mathematics, shared insights on Foundational Leaning for Numeracy unpacking the National Mathematics Improvement Programme (NMIP), focusing on Teaching Mathematics for Understanding with intervention and support, especially during the early years with a focus on the CPA (Concrete, Pictorial and Abstract) Approach for Teaching Maths with the 5Ts Focus on Time on Task; Teacher Preparedness; Textbooks; Technology; and Testing at the Right Level to bring about the transformation of Mathematics teaching.
Dr Naledi Mbude-Mehana, DDG for Transformation Special Programmes, shared lessons learned from the 2025 Mother Tongue-based Bilingual Education implementation: “The distinction between Foundations of Learning and Foundations for Learning is crucial in understanding the importance of early education and the role of schools in fostering these skills. MTbBE is not a quick fix, but a deliberate, long-term investment in the future of South African learners and the nation itself. The reading problem is a language problem; when language skills are weak, reading fails”. She indicated that there is a correlation between languages strength and mathematics performance, adding that the focus for 2026 will be on languageing as strengthening language is key; hence the Mother Tongue-based Reading Literacy (MTbRL) pilot of 2026 to strengthen literacy in African languages for them to be used from ECD as languages of literacy and instruction across all subjects.