Final Blog for EDUC 6162

     According to my International contact, Tamalin Harper, who says “The South African constitution, through the Bill of Rights, makes provision for children’s socio-economic rights, including the right to basic education and protection from neglect, abuse and exploitation. However, South Africa still has a long way to go to effectively meet the needs of the majority of children.” “More than half of South Africa’s children live in severe poverty, which jeopardises the realisation of their rights as contained in the South African Constitution” (Du Plessis & Conley, 2007). The government assists families when they are too poor to afford education and their basic needs.  Sometimes this is achieved through subsidies and/or grants. Research has shown that grants have contributed towards food, education as well as basic goods and services for millions of children across the country (Kibbel, 2010).  Mrs. Harper says “Some of the prominent challenges and obstacles facing ECD facilities include absence of learning materials and resources, especially within the classroom setting, minimal funding, lack of qualified teachers, inadequate security for children whilst at the ECD facility, as well as poor toilet amenities.”   She also expresses “Despite of the government’s efforts to alleviate hunger and food insecurities,” the challenge still remains.  According to Mrs. Harper’s sources, “Hunger is highest among Black African children with 17% of the total Black African child population living in households that reported child hunger compared to 13% of Coloured children, 2% Indian and only 1% of White children.” These statistics raise a red flag to me as a professional because children are merely products of adults.  Personally, I feel as though no matter what country one resides, they need to be taught to responsibly use birth control methods to reduce the preceding statistics.   Additionally, in 2009 in South Africa, 7 million children lived in households that did not have direct access to clean drinking water, and there had been very little improvement in children’s access to water between 2002 and 2009” (Kibbel, 2010, p. 102). Mrs. Harper gave me great information about the state of the Early Childhood Sector (ECS) in South Africa and I appreciate her willingness to take the time to cooperate and assist me/us in learning about ECS in her country. 

     From learning with my international contact, I realize that early childhood educators all over the world have a need for qualified instructional personnel in this field.  It is disheartening to me that even though very young children need a solid educational foundation to build on all other academic successes, there is a great demand for qualified persons to meet these needs.  I would like to pose this to my classmates.  If you know someone who loves young children and are perhaps willing to study early childhood education, please persuade them to do so.  We need them more now than ever. 

     It has been a wonderful eight week journey with you –Dr. Longo and colleagues.  I appreciate your willingness to learn, explore, support and research the many Issues and Trends in Early Childhood education.  My favorite part of the class was to view the clip of the Gonzales family because it allowed me to view immigrants from another perspective.   

References

Kibbel, M., Lake, L., Pendlebury, S. & Smith, C. (eds). (2010) South African Child Gauge 2009/2010. Cape Town: Children’s Institute, University of Cape Town.

Du Plessis, P. & Conley, L. (2007) ‘Children and poverty in south africa: The right to social security’ Educational Research and Review, 2 (4): 49-59.