Non-profit social enterprise Grow ECD’s learners are developmentally on track and ahead of the national average, and their curriculum is available for free to all South African ECD centres!
South Africa (04 May 2025) — Non-profit social enterprise Grow ECD is celebrating success from their little learners who are not only ‘on track’ with the national average but ahead of it.
According to the recent 2024 Early Learning Outcomes Measure (ELOM), learners in preschools that are properly implementing the Grow ECD curriculum are achieving inspired results.
ELOM is a dipstick and standardised assessment tool that determines whether children are developmentally on track for their age. Grow ECD conducted an ELOM study across three provinces, evaluating 91 learners aged between 4 and 5 years.
The results showed that 70% of children in Grow ECD centres are developmentally on track compared to the national Thrive by Five Index, which reports that only 45.7% of children are on track.
Grow ECD-aligned schools also scored well on the Social-Emotional Rating Scale, which assesses emotional readiness for school and peer relationships. Results showed that 80% of Grow ECD learners met the standard for social relations, while 76% demonstrated emotional readiness for school.
Says Lisa Voortman, Head of Education at Grow ECD:
“Many teachers spend hours planning and preparing without being sure that the planning does not leave gaps in the children’s learning. These results prove that following the Grow ECD Curriculum is covering all the necessary bases and ensuring learners are on track for their age.”
Not only are the Grow ECD team celebrating the results, but they’re also hoping to share the method with ECDs all over the country.
Their online curriculum is now available for free to any ECD centre in South Africa, providing a practical curriculum that covers 0-2 year olds and 2-5 year olds.
“Research has proven that early childhood education is the foundation of a child’s learning journey. Ensuring that children receive quality education in their formative years sets them up for success. The ELOM results show that preschools using the Grow curriculum are providing a quality education to their learners,” adds Lisa.
Currently, 232 ECD centres across South Africa are using the curriculum, with over 11,300 learners benefiting from it every day.
The online curriculum and teacher’s guide hopes to fill the gaps that many ECD teachers face. It is an NCFa-aligned and age-appropriate curriculum, and an easy-to-use interactive daily lesson planner accessible from one’s brimming with videos, voice notes, photos, songs and printouts. Additionally, it’s data-free and accessible on any Android phone, tablet or laptop.
“The teachers have a better understanding on how to implement the curriculum and use my classroom resources better. The children are so happy to come to the Educare Centre, because they learn every day something else and they are excited to learn through play!” Praises Pamela Peterson of Sunset Educare Centre.
“The curriculum acts like a mentor in a teacher’s ear, showing and guiding her step-by-step to implement play-based education. It is not limited to a physical book so every teacher can access the planner at any time, on her phone and data-free,” explains Lisa. “We know a teacher’s day is incredibly busy and taking time to plan and prepare is crucial if you want your week to run smoothly. The curriculum supports her with that planning by showing her exactly what to do for every day of the week and every hour of the day.”
To get started, ECD centre owners must download the Grow Giraffe app on an Android device. For assistance, they can contact the Grow ECD helpdesk at support@growecd.org.za.
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