With nearly one million South African children still excluded from the early childhood development (ECD) ecosystem, urgent collaboration is needed to meet the country’s 2030 early learning targets.
An educator teaches young children as part of an early learning programme.
Speaking at the 2025 Trialogue Business in Society Conference, FirstRand Group head of social investing, Kone Gugushe emphasised the pivotal role corporates can play in transforming early learning outcomes – calling for long-term, data-driven investment to help bridge the gap.
The conference was held at The Galleria in Sandton, Johannesburg under the theme ‘Driving impact, Inspiring change’.
Strengthening ECD for lasting impact: a panel discussion at the Trialogue Business in Society Conference
The FirstRand Foundation was one of six corporate sponsors who partnered with Trialogue to discuss pressing matters impacting the corporate social investment and development in South Africa.
The Foundation and Trialogue presented a panel discussion entitled ‘Strengthening early childhood development for lasting impact’.
Kone Gugushe, head of social investing at FirstRand Group
Gugushe was joined on the panel by Kulula Manona (head of the Chief Directorate on early childhood development in the Department of Basic Education [DBE]); Sonja Giese (executive director of DataDrive 2030); and Sizwe Nxasana (former FirstRand CEO and founder of Sifiso Learning Group).
Prior to the panel discussion, Minister of Basic Education, Siviwe Gwarube, highlighted the need for sector collaboration to improve ECD outcomes in the country.
FirstRand’s two decades of impact in ECD
FirstRand is a leader in the ECD space. It has supported more than 4,000 ECD centres over the past 20 years, affecting the lives of around 200,000 children. It has also trained more than 17,000 teachers. This long-term commitment has allowed it to tackle some of the more stubborn problems in the sector that shorter funding cycles tend to bypass.
In the last four years, FirstRand has invested over R100m in initiatives such as:
- ECD practitioner capacity building
- Digital literacy training for teachers and learners
- Development of learner resources
- Support for learners with disabilities
FirstRand is data-led, and this is one of the game-changers ECD needs, said Manona. She highlighted the Thrive By Five Index, a nationally represented dataset, which has helped the sector to understand the bigger picture. Importantly, using data to shift practices produces results in a relatively short space of time, according to Giese. This has the potential to dramatically shift outcomes for young children in years to come.
“There are very few things you can fix in four years, but four years can change the entire life of a four-year-old,” Giese pointed out.
She challenged funders to adopt a 'growth mindset', however, and not use data simply to assess competency or compliance. “We don’t want to use data to tell our story – we want to use it to change our story,” she explained, adding that curiosity and a continuous learning mindset can make a big difference.
Data shouldn’t be collected solely for academic or donor reporting – rather, it should be democratised and used as a tool for creative-problem solving, said Giese. Funders and boards should be open to course-correction based on new evidence. She noted the value of learning from positive deviance, where some low-income ECD programmes outperform their well-off peers, offering insights for broader replication.
“A data-smart ECD ecosystem needs a clear mandate, tools that can be embedded in the data value chain, and data literacy so we can use data to shift behaviour and become thought leaders in the education space,” she asserted. She also urged corporates to deploy multi-year budgets, flexible funding, and non-financial assets to support ECD throughout the full learning cycle.
The challenge of professionalising ECD
While the panellists agreed on the need to professionalise ECD, Nxasana warned of the dangers of doing so without care. “It is vital that the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET), which is responsible for accreditation, works closely with the DBE, nonprofits and other stakeholders to ensure we don’t collapse what is working, and fix what isn’t currently working,” he said.
ECD practitioners shouldn’t be expected to professionalise in the manner of school teachers, especially as there are crucial factors to be taken into account in a child’s first 1,000 days, including cognitive development and social welfare. “ECD is not about imposing formal teacher models. It’s about holistic development – cognitive, emotional, and physical,” he pointed out.
At the same time, we need to be realistic about the tools and platforms ECD practitioners use. For example, WhatsApp has proved adequate for 'gogos' and young women running their ECD businesses from back rooms or garages in townships or rural villages, said Nxasana. He highlighted the need to build accessible, community-rooted training institutions, especially as there are no dedicated ECD colleges in the country.
Each panellist asserted that the success of ECD systems hinges on well-supported practitioners. Professionalising the sector must go hand-in-hand with improved working conditions, secure and dignified wages, and ongoing mentorship and coaching. Gugushe said ECD practitioners also need access to resources, networks and ongoing support to strengthen their capabilities.
As Manona noted, quality teaching is one of the five key pillars in the DBE’s strategy for early learning – a strategy that must include scalable, affordable, and flexible pathways for ECD success.
