Address by Dr Tshepo Motsepe on the occasion of the SmartStart Unite Conference, Pretoria

Programme Director
Chief Executive officer of SmartStart, Ms Grace Matlhape
All the Board Members of SmartStart present here today
SmartStart franchisees
Ladies and Gentlemen

It is my privilege to be here with you this morning at the Annual SmartStart Unite Conference.

Strong and solid foundations are the bedrock of building a progressive society, and no more important is this than in the education of our children.

Early Childhood Development is a vital cog in the wheel and establishes a proper foundation for children’s later learning and at the same time constitutes an essential basis on which new education and training will be built.
 
Ladies and Gentlemen

This year we mark 25 years of our democracy, a time to measure our progress in giving effect to the Bill of Rights for our citizens.

We have come a long way indeed when it comes to broadening access to early childhood education for this country’s children in general, and black children in particular.

In 1994 by some estimates only 6% of black children attended ECD facilities.

In the past financial year an estimated 700 000 children countrywide were attending some form of ECD facility.

Although this is laudable, it only represents a fraction of the amount of children we need to reach.

In this regard, we are inspired by your aspiration to increase access to 1 million children by 2025.

Such a commitment is in line with government’s priority to develop critical foundation skills and ensure increased access.

Furthermore the Human Resource Development Council of South Africa which is a a multi-sectorial structure that brings together academia, business, organised labour, civil society and government is also mandated to develop programmes to enhance ECD in line with their mandate to build the requisite human capital for economic growth and prosperity.

We are gathered here because we share a common goal to strengthen the foundation and nurture the seeds of our nation by driving universal accessibility to effective interventions that develop our children.

StartSmart is a great platform for inspiration, reward and recognition for the great work that is being done in child development in South Africa.
 
This appreciation finds context in the 1990 UNESCO World Declaration on Education for All, which embraces the principle that learning begins at birth, and emphasises the need to expand early childhood development programmes to include community interventions especially for poor, disadvantaged and disabled children.

It is further anchored by the Government’s 2015 National Integrated Early Childhood Development Policy, which is an expression of what needs to be done to realise our county’s Vision of 2030 as outlined by the National Development Plan.  
 
The vision paints a picture of a society where every child in South Africa would have access to the full range of ECD services.

Ladies and gentlemen

As we may all know, human capital is any nation’s most vital endowment factor that determines how prosperous a society becomes.  

SmartStart’s wonderful work is located at the most critical primary phase of human development.

As a Setswana proverb goes, “Likhobiwa lisali metsi”. Your contribution is in the shaping of young minds to become capable future human capital for our country.

It continues to be  proven that children who go through ECD programmes have the benefit of improved performance over and above expected age progress.

As evidenced by the outcomes of the evaluation of your ECD programme, I am pleased by the success, positive impact and the effectiveness it has made in preparing our children for the next phase of their educational journey.

The expansion of access to quality learning by SmartStart to disadvantaged children in particular and the skills development and empowerment of women in impoverished communities bear testimony to your commitment to addressing the socio-economic challenges facing our country.

It’s with a golden heart that I take this opportunity to truly applaud and congratulate the initiative and each and every SmartStart franchise for a job well done in this noble course.

I am very confident that this Initiative will continue to grow.

As we celebrate the positive contribution by the SmartStart Initiative, I take this opportunity to encourage all of us to continue playing a part and join hands in ensuring success in this important work of ECD.

We also wish to witness more initiatives such as this one, which increase the participation of our children without losing emphasis on quality outcomes.

It is the role of all of us as communities to invest efforts in our future by investing in our children.

It is often said that it takes a village to raise a child.

Our children are our future.
Thank you.