SmartStarter in training, Noluvuyo Wesi, attending a SmartStart training session in Duncan Village in the Eastern Cape (May, 2018).
Far too many young children in South Africa miss out on early learning opportunities that develop their cognitive, emotional, social and physical potential. While quality early childhood education programs are a proven vehicle for academic success and economic mobility, nations that do not already have a nationally supported early childhood system struggle to find ways to move from the status quo to a scalable, replicable, evidence-based program.
In South Africa, 80% of lower-income households do not have access to any form of early learning for their children under the age of five.
The lack of early learning opportunities for these children prevents them from starting school with the foundational skills and knowledge required to realise their potential. As a consequence, millions of children start school behind and never catch up – perpetuating cycles of social and economic exclusion.
Several public systems are required to enable and regulate a high-quality supply of early childhood development (ECD) programmes, including financing, curriculum, qualifications and health and safety requirements. Unfortunately, these systems do not grow capacity towards universal access, nor do they ensure quality and regulatory compliance.
SmartStart has identified this as an ‘implementation gap’. This conceptualisation of an implementation gap focuses attention on the ingredients of system capacity, including a practitioner pipeline, sufficient venues and architecture for managed programme set-up and support. These elements can be provided by an end-to-end delivery system that organises a value chain of administrative and operational solutions into an integrated platform.
The majority of South Africans are stuck in an inequality trap with wealth concentrated in the hands of a few. Most are stuck in intergenerational loops of exclusion with few chances to escape. Breaking this cycle requires a fundamental change in life trajectories, starting in the womb.
Think of a Möbius strip – just one twist in the circle allows you to trace a completely different pattern. Instead of being stuck on the inside of a loop, you emerge on the outside. In the same way, escaping the inequality trap requires a fundamental twist to set South Africa on a new path.
SmartStart’s social franchise model is designed to address the implementation gap in early learning and promote employment opportunities for a women-led care economy. The social franchise model seeks to develop a population-based approach in which quality early learning is not just delivered through registered ECD centres but also delivered in homes and other community-based settings.
Through its network, SmartStart trains and recruits early learning practitioners to run their own programmes. In so doing, it not only allows for the delivery of a defined, quality daily routine for young children, but it also empowers franchisees to support themselves as micro-entrepreneurs while developing a large cohort of ECD practitioners who can be upskilled for a national ECD service delivery system in future.
In this way, SmartStart is focused on driving female economic empowerment by training women to become early learning practitioners in their respective areas. This stimulates job creation and increases access to early learning in our most vulnerable communities.
SmartStart has set an ambitious target: to enable one million young children to benefit from quality early learning each year by 2030. Guided by a practical, scalable model, the network has rapidly expanded its footprint and now reaches children across diverse South African communities.
At the heart of this approach is a belief that communities carry the assets needed to drive sustainable change. By equipping women to establish early learning programmes in their own homes or neighbourhood spaces, SmartStart supports the growth of small, community-rooted enterprises that deliver consistent, high-quality care.
Through a social franchising framework, twelve implementing partners license and mentor nearly 15 000 practitioners nationwide, collectively ensuring that more than 160 000 children access early learning opportunities each week.
Visit the SmartStart website to learn more: www.smartstart.org.za
Trying to change life trajectories is ambitious and profound. It requires us to radically influence the lives of individuals and to be part of changing the circumstances in which they live.
