Improving South Africa’s ECD - From theory to practice

Rethinking Professional Development In South Africa’s ECD Sector

South Africa’s ECD workforce faces well-documented skills and capacity challenges.

Multiple national studies, such as Thrive by Five and evaluations captured in the South African Early Childhood Review, show that qualifications alone have not translated into consistent quality learner outcomes, particularly in under-resourced settings.

While formal training provides essential foundations, professional competence develops over time through supported practice, feedback and experience.

Government itself, through the DBE’s 2030 Strategy and the Bana Pele registration framework, now recognises that quality teaching is a journey, not a tick-box.

In the ECD context, as with most other professions, formal qualifications provide important foundational theory, but professional competence is built by experience gained over the years.

In ECD, this gap is amplified because many practitioners work in isolation and often juggle managing classrooms, administration, compliance and parent engagement simultaneously, all within financially constrained small-business environments.

To improve outcomes for learners, ECD practitioners need to learn through workplace application, mentorship, coaching, reflection and feedback in real-world environments, ideally focused on best practice, from high-quality mentors.

Policy Evolution And The Shift Towards Continuous Development

The government’s shift toward ongoing training is a direct response to evidence that only 4 in 10 South African children are ready for school.

Government policy now recognises that quality is built progressively and not achieved instantly through a certificate.

The Department of Basic Education’s new 2030 Strategy for ECD Programmes explicitly recognises workforce development as central to quality and prioritises continuous professional development over once-off certification.

The strategy mentions “Training, mentoring and continuing professional development as a core priority in basic education”.

Workforce And Quality Challenges In ECD

Unfortunately, national data indicate that the majority of children are not developmentally on track, even when enrolled in ECD programmes.

The Thrive by Five Index, one of the most important national studies shaping policy in South Africa, shows that only 42% of children are developmentally on track by age four to five, and 58% are falling behind or are far behind.

The index points to cognitive and early learning development as the weakest area, with literacy, numeracy and problem-solving lagging in most young children.

Fine motor and visual integration are also especially weak.

This means that children are already behind when they arrive at school and struggle to catch up; many are unable to do so, which widens learning gaps and increases the risk of dropping out.

This is true even among children attending ECD programmes, indicating that programme quality is more important than access to ECD.

The index also shows that children from under-resourced areas are struggling the most.

This points to a gap in practice and delivery, not just in access to ECD or in practitioners’ qualifications.

ECD Models Reflecting National Policy

ECDs should not only rely on government.

Rose Mokoena, Grow ECD’s Head of Education, an organisation that provides ongoing training and mentorship to ECD practitioners, explains that the government cannot do this alone.

“ECD owners and teachers must actively seek out opportunities and take responsibility for their own development,” she says.

“And, at the same time, government and organisations must ensure that training is accessible, affordable, and relevant to the realities of ECD practice.

ECD models must reflect what national policy is calling for in terms of blended professional development, ongoing, practice-based learning, and skills that cover education, business, and life skills, not just pedagogy,” says Mokoena.

Qualifications Are Expensive And Do Not Guarantee Higher Earnings

According to Mokoena, 63% of ECD centre owners and 45% of ECD teachers at Grow ECD-aligned programme centres hold an ECD NQF Level 4 qualification or higher.

She explains that this is not due to a lack of willingness to be qualified, but rather the economic realities many practitioners face.

“Many women in the sector barely earn minimum wage,” says Mokoena.

“It is unrealistic to expect them to afford the time commitment and cost of formal qualifications, especially when those qualifications do not guarantee a salary increase and are strongly theory-based rather than practical.”

Despite these barriers, she notes that many teachers continue to study part-time or remotely while working, gradually building their qualifications alongside their teaching practice.

What Blended, Practice-Based Professional Development Looks Like In Reality

Ongoing training and mentoring, such as that provided by organisations like Grow ECD and Hope International, provide a professionalisation pathway for ECD practitioners that does not exclude informal and semi-formal centres.

“Grow ECD’s more than a decade-long experience in training and mentoring ECD practitioners has proved that ongoing skills development is key to better outcomes for the children,” says Mokoena.

ECD centres that partner with Grow ECD show results above the national average, with 70% of learners ‘on track’ across the developmental domains and even higher scores on the Social-Emotional Rating Scale.

Grow ECD offers teachers and centre owners more than 21 experiential in-person training courses, 15 online courses, in-classroom assessments and mentoring.

These practical interventions are usually play-based and focus on turning theory into practice to nurture teachers’ confidence and skills.

Marc Aguirre, Country Director of HOPE worldwide South Africa, a national ECD organisation, says, “What matters most is how practitioners translate knowledge into responsive, everyday interactions with children.

Quality in ECD is not defined only by what practitioners know, but by how they engage with children, respond to their emotions, create safe and stimulating environments, and turn daily routines into opportunities for learning and development.”

He notes that, in response to recent findings highlighted by the Thrive by Five Index, HOPE worldwide South Africa is increasingly orienting its training towards practices that strengthen responsive teaching in early learning environments.

This shift is being supported in part through an online learning course designed to reinforce practical, skills-based applications in the classroom.

Aguirre adds that these efforts are being scaled through its HOPE ECD Network (HEN), comprising nearly 2,000 Early Learning Programmes (ELPs) primarily based in vulnerable communities.

“Our approach recognises that improving ECD quality requires meeting practitioners where they are and building from existing strengths,” he says.

He explains that just as responsive parenting has a significant impact on the home learning environment for young children, responsive teaching in the classroom plays a similarly important role in shaping children’s learning, development, and wellbeing.

ECD Owners And Teachers Are Asking For More Training

In the field, ECD owners and teachers understand the benefits of ongoing training.

Nicky Walton is the Education Co-Ordinator at The Domino Foundation, an ECD programme that supports independent small-business ECD owners and makes use of Grow ECD’s training programmes.

She says that almost all ECD owners ask for two main things: support with infrastructure for their schools and teacher training.

“Teachers are absolutely desperate to be trained up and to gain knowledge so they can be more effective teachers who can confidently teach and assess young learners.

ECD owners want knowledge to help them become better at running their small businesses and to learn how to generate a profit,” says Walton.

The Domino Foundation provides ongoing, practical training through its quarterly workshops and offers Grow ECD’s Business Accelerator courses.

“Our independent ECD owners deeply appreciate and love these workshops where they receive vast experience from capable mentors who are rich in knowledge, developmentally sound and practical.

The business courses also provide valuable, ongoing training to support owners on the path to developing sustainable small businesses from their preschools,” she says.

Support That Reflects The Realities Of Informal And Low-Fee ECD Settings

Mokoena adds that for professional development to be effective, it must be both continuous and grounded in context.

ECD knowledge is constantly evolving, which requires practitioners to have ongoing opportunities to engage with new approaches, reflect on their practice, and strengthen how they support children’s cognitive and social-emotional development.

At the same time, ECD settings vary widely in resources, culture and community realities.

Training that is disconnected from these contexts often fails to translate into practice.

Contextualised professional development ensures learning is practical, relevant, and immediately applicable, creating a more meaningful and sustainable pathway to improving quality, she says.

Quality ECD Is A Workforce Development Challenge

If South Africa is serious about improving early learning outcomes, it must invest as intentionally in how ECD practitioners are supported in practice as it does in their theoretical training.

Professionalising the sector means building rigorous, inclusive pathways grounded in the realities of everyday ECD environments.

Lasting improvement in early learning outcomes will depend on coherent systems that combine formal training with continuous, practice-based professional development that meets practitioners where they are and supports quality as a journey over time.