Thrive by Five Index 2024

The Thrive by Five Index is South Africa’s most comprehensive effort to date to assess the developmental status of 4-year-old children enrolled in early learning programmes across the country. The Index produces indicators on key child outcomes (early learning levels, social-emotional functioning and physical growth) that are used to assess and track child performance nationally. The study was designed in partnership with the Departments of Basic Education, Health, Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation, Social Development, and Statistics South Africa. The 2024 Index is the second in a series of cross-sectional nationally and provincially representative surveys of the developmental status of children aged 50-59 months, to be conducted three-yearly until 2030. It follows the first round, conducted in 2021 amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

The objectives of the Index are to:

• Determine the proportion of young children in South Africa who attend Early Learning Programmes (ELPs) who are On Track for their age in three key areas of development, early learning, social-emotional functioning (SEF) and physical growth
• Monitor trends in performance gaps and gains in this population over time and across socio-economic groups
• Explore a range of potential predictors of key child outcomes
• Track progress in the attainment of local and global development goals, including the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs); and
• Inform decision-making and actions to improve key development outcomes for young children.

The 2024 Index has two study components: children enrolled in ELPs, referred to as enrolled children, and those not enrolled in ELPs, referred to as the sub-study of non-enrolled children. The sub-study of the non-enrolled children is household based and represents a test sample to assess the feasibility of reaching children aged 50-59 months, but who were not enrolled in an ELP in 2024. This sample is not statistically representative.

Data on the following topics was collected during the study:
ENROLLED CHILDREN:
Children: Demographics, learning outcomes, social-emotional functioning outcomes, physical growth (height)
Households and Primary Caregivers: Demographics, household characteristics, home learning environment, home stressors, primary caregiver characteristics.
Early Learning Centres: Learning programme quality, facility features (existence of a fence, source of drinking water, type of toilets), key ELP characteristics and funding sources.
Principals and practitioners: Demographics, education and training, working environment, salaries, barriers to doing their job, views on teaching and learning and gender.

NON-ENROLLED CHILDREN:
Children: Demographics, learning outcomes, social-emotional functioning outcomes, physical growth (height)
Households and Primary Caregivers: Demographics, household characteristics, home learning environment, home stressors, primary caregiver characteristics.