Knysna Education Trust (KET) was founded in 1993 by a group aiming to uplift early childhood development (ECD) in disadvantaged communities. Initially focused on supporting individual children, the organisation soon shifted to strengthening ECD facilities themselves, ensuring lasting community impact.
Our overarching vision is to ensure all children in our municipal region are thriving and ready for school by the age of 6 years old. This means they are well-nourished, healthy, safe, and meeting their developmental milestones (including emotional, physical, social, and cognitive).
ECD is a key driver for social development and the wellbeing of communities in South Africa. Financial constraints make communities like those in rural and semi-urban areas particularly vulnerable. We create opportunities for access to high-quality ECD programmes for all children in our area, empowering them to make the most of their formal schooling to break the cycle of poverty.
Provide ECD and Aftercare facility registration support, upgrades, and management training;
Offer a bespoke ECD curriculum (CAPS- and NELS- aligned) with a strong focus on literacy (FONIX) and numeracy development (NUMBA);
Provide accredited ECD training and ongoing practitioner development to ensure teachers are competent and responsive to children’s cognitive, physical, social and emotional development needs;
Provide sustainability activities to ECD facilities, such as on-site ECD programme implementation and quality control, on-the-job training, and psycho-social emotional support for ECD practitioners;
Facilitate access to ECD facilities for children from poor families through bursaries support;
Implement feeding schemes in vulnerable ECD facilities to support children’s healthy physical development and emotional wellbeing;
Mentor principals to enable practitioners in their role and develop meaningful relationships with the parents, with the aim to embed the facility as a community asset;
Provide parent engagement training to principals and practitioners to empower parents with the knowledge and skills to support the child’s development in the home;
Advocate with communities and caregivers for the value of ECD, as well as participate in national advocacy efforts to ensure that universal ECD services become institutionalised in South Africa.
Nearly 50% of children aged 0-5 don’t access any ECD programme
Only 16% of South African Grade 3 children are performing at an appropriate Grade 3 mathematics level
Only 1 in 4 children read for meaning by Grade 4