South Africa’s largest ever survey of preschool child development, the Thrive by Five Index, was released on 8 April 2022, at the Sandton International Convention Centre. The Index was initiated by First National Bank (FNB) and Innovation Edge, in collaboration with the DBE, and is supported by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and ECD Measure. The DBE assumed responsibility for the support and regulation of Early Learning Programmes (ELPs) on 1 April 2022, a role previously held by the Department of Social Development.

The Thrive by Five Index assessed over 5000 children aged 4-5 years enrolled in various types of ELPs around the country. Children were assessed in three areas which are widely accepted as being predictive of a child’s performance in school: early learning, physical growth, and social emotional functioning. Learning tasks that were assessed fall into five groups: gross motor skills, fine motor skills, early literacy, early mathematics, and executive functioning, which is the child’s ability to solve problems and pay attention. According to the Index, 65% of 4-5-year-old children attending ELPs in South Africa are failing to thrive. These children are not meeting the expected early learning and/or physical growth standards for their age and will start Grade R at a considerable disadvantage, with possible long-term implications for their education.

The Index reports that 55% of children attending ELPs are not able to do the learning tasks expected of children their age, with 28% of children falling far behind the expected standard. Children’s physical growth - measured as their expected height for their age - and social emotional functioning were also assessed. In addition, one in four children (25.1%) showed signs of long-term malnutrition, which presents itself as stunted physical growth. For social emotional functioning, the Index found that 27.5% of children did not meet the standard when it came to age-appropriate social relations with peers and adults, while 33.4% were found to not be emotionally ready for school. The Index found that while there are instances of considerable variation in performance within income groups, on average children from poorer households are falling behind their better off peers as a result of the challenges they face in their earliest years. Children thrive by age five when, from birth, they experience a nurturing and safe environment, and they have access to quality healthcare and nutrition, as well as opportunities for learning - both in the home and in ELPs.

“South Africa will not realise its development goals of eliminating income poverty and reducing inequality, without addressing the significant challenges that young children face in their earliest years. We have to tackle the injustice of unequal opportunities in early childhood,” said Sonja Giese, former Executive Director of Innovation Edge and Project Lead for the Thrive by Five Index. “FNB has partnered with the private and public sectors to launch the Thrive by Five Index to foster positive impact in the ECD Ecosystem, which we continue to support and invest in. FNB is committed to improving the early childhood life experiences of South Africa’s children,” added Jacques Celliers, CEO of FNB.

“The private-public partnership to create the Index was forged, because Early Childhood Development needs and services are interdependent. Ensuring that all children in South Africa are developmentally on track by the time they start school requires collaboration between multiple government departments and social partners. The Thrive by Five Index partnership has called for urgent collective action to decrease the performance gap between young children in the richest and poorest households at the point of entry into school; and to increase the percentage of young children in South Africa who thrive by five, setting more children up for success,” concluded Minister Motshekga.

A panel discussion, featuring Ms Kulula Manona, Chief Director for Foundations for Learning, and other sector experts, discussed the findings to seek solutions to a few of the challenges identified during the launch.