Welcome back to work after a well-deserved end-of-year holiday. We hope you had a restful break and that you returned full of energy and ready to make an impact in the year ahead. 2012 presents new challenges and opportunities for us all. During the year there will again be a constantly changing environment. No one can say with any certainty what 2012 holds. Part of our ability to sustain our organisations depends on how we adapt to this environment. We can choose to anticipate the environment, adapt to it, work with it, and strive to be the best, or like many NPOs in the past, we can continue to do things as usual, and not survive.

Once again, the National Senior Certificate results are poor, notwithstanding the small increase in passes from 67.8 to 70.2 percent. To combat the poor showing year after year, the government needs to invest more heavily in the early years of education. Expanding and improving the quality of early childhood development (ECD) programmes is a proven solution. An effective national early childhood development programme, supported by the government, would clearly have a major impact on pupils’ performance and on the National Senior Certificate results. Yet our education authorities continue to limit young children’s access to ECD programmes through inadequate policy, strategy and practice. Non-government organisations with years of experience and expertise can add much value here.

A significant event at the start of our ECD calendar this year is the budget speech which will take place in February. The budget speech outlines government spend for the year ahead, and most importantly, provides us with information on their allocations for education (specifically early childhood development) and the increase to the Child Support Grant. It is interesting to note, that by April 2011, 10.5 million children aged 0 – 16 years were accessing the Child Support Grant – making it the largest child poverty alleviation programme in South Africa. Research has shown that this grant has contributed towards food, education and basic goods and services for millions of children across the country. While the Child Support Grant has increased over the years since its introduction from R100 in 1998 to R270 in August 2011, this is still far too little. 

There is a lot do in the sector this year. It is our responsibility to assist government, contribute to policy change and advocate for education programmes that produce the greatest social, economic and developmental benefits to children, families and communities.

We congratulate you on your work in 2011 and wish you all the best for 2012 - may we all continue to put young children first!