The 2021 ECD census conducted by the departments of basic education and social development highlights that only 56% of Early Childhood Development centres have age- appropriate reading material.
Even fewer have reading material in vernacular languages.
ECD centre owners such as Vuyokazi Dondi and Olwethu Mlilwana are working with the Yizani Sefundi literacy intervention programme to change this reality.
Mlilwana was working as a Grade 4 teaching assistant a few years ago when she realised her pupils were unable to read coherently, especially in isiXhosa.
Since then, she has been supplying reading material in isiXhosa to three ECDs in the Nxaruni area, with the help of the Yizani Sefunde programme.
Mlilwana said ECDs must emphasise literacy development to prevent children from entering the school system without any literacy capabilities.
Mlilwana said the children got to keep the books she supplied to the centres.
At home, the children were read to by their parents, encouraging family bonding.
Dondi, who owns the Kamvelihle Day Care centre in Scenery Park, said her pupils were mostly Xhosa speaking.
“I have noticed here at the centre that when the children can read in their language they become more confident and they start to develop a personality and opinions and ideas of their own,” she said.
In ECD centres in low-income areas, teachers and volunteers are severely under-supported and have to play multiple roles, often taking on parental responsibilities, which pushes literacy development to the back end.
Mlilwana said during winter, ECD centres urgently needed a supply of medicine and support from local health authorities as many children arrived without warm clothes or food to eat.
Dondi said the sector consisted of women who struggled to find other employment. They had to take on emotionally and physically stressful responsibilities without remuneration or support from authorities or even from parents. ECD owner and literary activist, Siviwe Mndayi said: “We are doing a lot of work but there is no money for equipment, never mind books, and as you can see our centres have many children enrolled but we don’t have space for them to play outside for instance.”
Dondi said she had struggled to obtain accreditation as an NPO from the department of social development because her centre is based in a low-income area prone to violence, crime and poverty.
Given the social and financial pressures faced by ECD centres, programmes such as the Yizani Sefunde intervention are vital.
Launched in 2021, Yizani Sifunde (isiXhosa for ‘come, let’s read’) is funded by the Liberty Community Trust and implemented in partnership with literacy NGOs: Nal’ibali, Book Dash and Wordworks.
