Scaling Up Early Childhood Development (ECD) (0-4 Years) in South Africa. Towards a Job Hierarchy for ECD Provision and Supervision in South Africa, and the Fit of Low-skill Service Providers

Description

The purpose of this paper is to: Identify the job hierarchies and career paths in ECD service provision and supervision needed to deliver access, quality and child outcomes; Relate these to the career opportunities for low- and semi-skilled workers and the use of the ECD service sector as a route to job creation and capacity building; Consider the location of these jobs, for example, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), local government, district offices, community-based organisations (CBOs) and small private businesses; Review the range of pay scales and expectations, from volunteerism to pay according to a public works stipend to aligning the service delivery agent to some extended pay scale (thereby seeing it as a proper job rather than a special ‘makework’ opportunity); Analyse the implications of these for Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) training and job hierarchies and the mass expansion of ECD and how these align with requirements of the NIP; and Make recommendations to government with regard to developing the job hierarchy, service conditions and on how job creation initiatives could better address the current mass expansion programme and the NIP for ECD.