The government will develop guidelines on screen time for children aged two to six, basic education minister Siviwe Gwarube announced on Tuesday.
The plan is in line with her department’s increased emphasis on the developmental needs of young children so they are on track when they begin primary school.
“Emerging international evidence points to developmental risks from excessive screen exposure in early childhood,” said the minister in her budget speech to parliament.
While digital media designed with children’s needs in mind can support learning, prolonged noneducational and solo use is associated with delays in language, cognition and fine motor control development, as well as poorer sleep and less pretend play and reading, according to the American Academy of Paediatrics.
Officials are also reviewing the 2004 White Paper on e-education and developing guidance on the use of AI in classrooms, said the minister.
“Our approach is clear: the machine may assist, but the teacher must decide, the learner must think and the system must protect trust,” she said.
The plan for screen time guidance is among a series of government interventions aimed at improving the lot of young children.
More than 13,300 early childhood development (ECD) centres have been registered by the education department, enabling more than 1.2-million children to access registered programmes that will better prepare them for school, said the minister.
A new programme offering meals to children in ECD centres is to be piloted in the Eastern Cape. “This responds directly to the Thrive by Five findings that 7% of South Africa’s children are stunted due to malnutrition,” said the minister.
Funding shortfall
But despite Gwarube’s efforts to position investments in ECD as crucial for South Africa’s prosperity, her department has been forced to redirect R800m from the ECD grant to address a funding shortfall for the appointment of grade R teachers.
The Treasury failed to provide the full R10bn required over the medium-term expenditure framework for the recent extension of mandatory schooling to grade R.
“This is not ideal, but doing nothing would be worse,” said the minister.
The minister also announced plans to reduce the administrative burden on teachers and review the matric pass rate ranking system.
Instead of considering only the pass rate, the department is proposing using a basket of indicators that includes the pass rates for maths, accounting and physical science, as well as the bachelor pass rate (required for university study).
The minister also announced an independent investigation into the new foundation phase catalogue, which lists the textbooks schools may order.
The catalogue has drawn scrutiny after News24 reported that the biggest share went to a new supplier that had no prior publishing experience.
The matter is already being probed by the National Treasury, and MPs have asked the public protector to look into it.
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