Improving educational quality project : an assessment of NGO Educare training -- February 1996

Today, most South African black communities continue to mobilize their own resources to provide educare facilities for their children. This report assesses the effectiveness of USAID-supported programs run by seven NGOs -- TREE, CCDC, Khululeka, Ntataise, Small Beginnings, ELRU, and Grassroots -- to train educare teachers. Overall, educare training is making an important difference in teachers" ability to provide quality educare. Specifically, NGO training has taught teachers how to make classrooms healthier and safer by producing inexpensive furniture appropriate for children; create an appropriate learning environment by using developmentally appropriate materials and activities such as decorations, improvised materials, the children"s own work, and involvement of the children in many different activities (advanced training has much more of an effect in this area than does basic training); and facilitate appropriate interactions between children. Further, those teachers who received training were better at involving parents, particularly mothers, and the community-at-large in educare centers, and had more access to government, private, and other resources (contact with training NGOs may have provided teachers with skills and introduced them to networks through which they can readily access resources). The study also observed that formal education and experience had little to do with the quality of education delivered by teachers. This suggests that non-formal educare training is more important than educational background in improving educational delivery. However, even training cannot compensate for educare schools" lack of resources in such areas as nutrition.