Grace Matlhape

Grace is improving the educational outcomes of children from underserved and marginalized communities in South Africa by recruiting, training and equipping unemployed individuals from local townships to operate their own SmartStart centers that provide quality early learning programs.

Grace Matlhape, founder of SmartStart, is transforming early childhood education in South Africa by mobilizing unemployed women and men to become trained Early Childhood Development (ECD) practitioners running affordable, quality preschools in underserved communities. Her organization provides the training, ongoing support and resources needed to deliver quality early learning without extensive facilities or prior experience.

Through her organization, Grace provides a unique National Delivery Program that simultaneously addresses the dire lack of preschools, the shortage of qualified ECD practitioners, and high unemployment in marginalized areas. Using a social franchising model, she empowers unemployed individuals to leverage existing community assets to become micro-social entrepreneurs filling the void of quality early learning programs for the poorest children. By demonstrating that rapid, cost-effective expansion of early learning is possible, Grace is building a nation-wide movement to put quality ECD within reach of even the poorest children, breaking intergenerational cycles of poverty and poverty as a predictor for poor quality of learning, whilst equipping children from aged three to five with the age-appropriate skills that will lay the foundation for their success at school and beyond. By pushing on all levers simultaneously - increasing access for children, improving educational quality, and creating jobs in a place with rampant unemployment - Grace is driving systemic change. SmartStart eliminates traditional barriers to entering the ECD sector and demonstrates that it is possible to affordably scale up quality early learning to reach even the poorest communities. Grace is taking an innovative approach to break this cycle by creating a new pathway for unemployed individuals without qualifications to become ECD practitioners and launch their own microenterprises in underserved communities.

In doing so, she challenges the prevailing narrative that a background of poverty automatically equals poor educational outcomes. Grace is redefining who can become an ECD practitioner and what is required, prioritizing passion, commitment and in-service training over formal qualifications. By using homes and other community spaces as the infrastructure for preschools, she eliminates the need for costly new facilities that can prevent expansion in underserved areas. Grace is elevating the status and standards of early learning in marginalized communities that have long been neglected.

According to well-established research, early childhood education is a critical foundation for a child's future development, providing a powerful base for lifelong learning, cognitive abilities, and social skills. Despite the unmistakable evidence of its importance, many governments worldwide have failed to include early learning in basic education, leaving it to operate as a private-sector enterprise. In a country like South Africa, where the lingering effects of apartheid fuel inequality, a child's access to quality ECD is largely determined by their household income level, putting the poorest children at a severe disadvantage from the very start. This has long-term detrimental impacts on their educational attainment, employment prospects and earning potential, perpetuating intergenerational cycles of poverty.

Over 42% of ECD centers in South Africa are unregistered with the government, operating without oversight, and lacking the necessary resources to provide quality education. The vast majority are in low-income communities, with untrained practitioners and often unsafe premises. Children attending these centers are deprived of the educational stimulation needed for healthy development. At the same time, early learning as a sector is grossly underfunded and undervalued, with ECD practitioners relying on government subsidy that could pay as little as R370 (USD20) per child per month. Even this small amount remains out of reach for the poorest ECD centres who are struggling to register because of unattainable registration requirements.

The result is a severe shortage of qualified ECD practitioners across the country. While international standards recommend a ratio of 6 children per teacher, the reality in South Africa is a staggering 36 to 1. Chronic low pay has made ECD an undesirable career path, leading even those with proper qualifications to seek employment in other sectors. Without trained practitioners, centers struggle to provide a quality learning environment. The social and economic potential of an entire generation risks being squandered.

Government attempts to address these challenges have unintentionally reinforced inequalities by imposing prohibitive barriers for poorer communities to access licensed centers and quality education. Only a third of ECD centers receive government funding, which is tied to registration. However, the registration process has strict health and infrastructure requirements that are extremely difficult for centers in disadvantaged areas to meet, such as having expansive premises. Navigating the complicated bureaucratic process is an additional obstacle. The high costs of acquiring land and facilities that adhere to government standards make it near impossible for individuals from low-income backgrounds to operate fully compliant ECD centers in their own communities.

At its core, the problem is that the government does not directly provide ECD services, but rather leaves it to a market-driven model. The government mandates that every child should have access to early learning before they enter the formal schooling system in grade R, but in practice, families are left to pay out of pocket. The more you can afford, the better access and quality you can obtain. In the absence of affordable, quality ECD, the poorest communities must rely on whatever childcare options they can find, which are often little more than babysitting without educational stimulation. Children are deprived of the opportunity to develop foundational skills simply because of the circumstances they are born into.

The current certification process to obtain a government subsidy for an ECD center requires infrastructure and teaching qualifications that create immense challenges in low-income communities. Centers serving the poorest families are unlikely to meet the standards for a facility, while most practitioners lack a formal degree due to the excessive costs and limited access to training programs. This systemic barrier prevents the expansion of quality ECD from reaching the most disadvantaged children who stand to benefit the most from early learning. Generations continue to have their potential limited.

Grace Matlhape, founder of SmartStart, is taking an innovative approach to break this cycle by creating a new pathway for unemployed individuals without qualifications to become ECD practitioners and launch their own microenterprises in underserved communities. Her organization provides the recruitment, training, ongoing support and resources needed to deliver quality early learning without extensive facilities or prior experience.

Grace's strategy to transform early childhood development (ECD) in South Africa is three-pronged, she is building and spreading her early learning model in underprivileged communities across South Africa, cultivating an ecosystem in the early learning sector by partnering with organizations, the public sector and government, and championing policy transformation through policy analysis and review. Through this strategy, Grace is tackling the two main drivers of exclusion in the early learning sector – the lack of qualifications and infrastructure.

First, SmartStart identifies municipalities where the gap in access to quality early learning is highest, then carefully enters the communities to introduce SmartStart and the importance of early learning. Then existing often unregistered, ECD centers in low-income communities are identified and invited for training and support to offer quality education using SmartStart’s curriculum and resources. Parallel to that, the organization recruits, screens and equips unemployed women and men with the skills and training to become licensed ECD practitioners and operate their own SmartStart franchises. By simultaneously addressing the shortage of both quality preschools and qualified practitioners, Grace is building a scalable solution to the ECD crisis, leveraging existing resources in the communities, suitable adults, and their homes. SmartStart has developed a rigorous process to identify and develop ECD practitioners. Candidates who must have at least a grade 9 qualification and a passion for working with children are vetted against key criteria. The vetting process takes the form of an interactive attitude and behaviour assessment and background checks to ensure they are fit to work with children. Those selected undergo an intensive 1-week training course on the fundamentals of early learning and running a SmartStart franchise.. Once qualified, SmartStart works with them to ensure their homes are safe for them to operate from. Smartstart also equips them with a “starter playkit” which has the necessary resources, mainly classroom materials, for them to launch their own SmartStart programmes. Grace has signed an agreement with the South African Council of Churches in Gauteng, as well as one with the Anglican Church Board of Education (ABESA), to make church properties available to be used as early learning centers in instances where a practitioner does not have a safe home to operate from or they have outgrown their home. Importantly, SmartStart provides continuous monitoring and training through coaches who are ECD professionals such as teachers and social science professionals as well as an online platform where practitioners have access to teaching and training materials. The practitioners also receive training and mentorship on entrepreneurship to effectively run their businesses. To date, over 18 400 ECD practitioners have been trained through this model.

Engaging the government to embrace SmartStart's model as a scalable solution to the ECD crisis is another key pillar of Grace's strategy. While trying to understand the drivers of exclusion of largely poor children from early learning, Grace and her colleagues recognized that one of the shortfalls of the policies and legislations that regulate early learning in South Africa was its assumptions that there is equitable access to land, prequalification, and resources for early learning practitioners. They also noted the system’s over-reliance on physical infrastructure as a measure of quality, thereby inadvertently marginalizing the poorest ECD operators and excluding the poorest children from early learning. Grace then approached the Department of Basic Education with her findings and asked to collaborate with them to find ways to address these gaps and transform early learning delivery. This has led to a partnership with the government, where SmartStart has seconded a senior member of their organization into the Department of Basic Education, who is now championing policy transformation in the sector, in partnership with other organisations. Through this partnership, SmartStart has an agreement with the government which has led to the development of the country’s first National ECD strategy, which successfully integrates home and community ECD delivery as part of the country’s delivery mechanisms towards universal access to early learning by 2030. Through the partnership, the organization has also worked with the department to facilitate the gazetting of the Children’s Amendment Bill which, among other things provides for improvement in the factors that drive exclusion of the poorest children from early learning. SmartStart is also working with DBE to explore public private partnerships that could enable the department to work effectively with non-state entities to transform the sector. The bill has been gazetted and is currently awaiting to be voted on and passed by members of parliament. By working both outside and inside the system, she aims to institutionalize home and community based early learning approach and unlock public resources to scale it.

A critical component of Grace's strategy is shifting mindsets and breaking down barriers. She is challenging the prevailing narrative that a background of poverty automatically equals poor educational outcomes by demonstrating that it is possible to deliver quality ECD in the most disadvantaged communities. By mobilizing unemployed individuals to fill this role and equipping them with the necessary skills, she is opening new possibilities for them to become entrepreneurs and contribute to their communities. In delivering the SmartStart program in this novel way, Grace is building a new pathway to quality ECD that is affordable and accessible.

To ensure the SmartStart brand maintains quality as it scales, the model builds in an integrated quality assurance system frequent and routine monitoring of all centers for quality at scale. In 2018, SmartStart commissioned an external evaluation of children in the program using a South African-normed child outcomes tool called the Early Learning Outcomes Measure (ELOM). The tool determines if children are developmentally on track for their age. The results showed that the proportion of SmartStart children achieving the standard across all domains, increased from 32% at the start to 62% eight months later. This provides compelling evidence of the program's impact in improving developmental outcomes. A similar evaluation conducted in 2023 showed similar results, but in particular showed that the poorest children benefitted the most from the programme, and that improved child outcomes are strongly associated with frequency of coaching visits.

SmartStart's approach has enabled it to achieve significant scale in a short period of time. They currently reach 120,000 children, growing at a rate of 45000 new children every year. This demonstrates Grace's ability to take a promising idea and turn it into a rapidly growing program reaching tens of thousands of children. SmartStart has established itself as a major player in reshaping the early learning landscape.

Looking ahead, Grace has set an ambitious goal for SmartStart to reach 1 million children annually by 2030. To achieve this, she is pursuing a partnership strategy to build an ecosystem of organizations invested in expanding access to quality ECD for all children in South Africa, regardless of socioeconomic status. SmartStart is working hand-in-hand with public, private and community-based organizations to spread its model. Some key partners include Lima Rural Development Foundation, Knysna Education Trust, Project Preparation Trust, and Siyakholwa Development Foundation. By engaging a wide variety of stakeholders, Grace aims to build a broad-based movement behind SmartStart's vision. Grace is currently in conversation with organizations in Zimbabwe and Lesotho, who have expressed interest in adopting her model and spreading her work. She also has ongoing conversations with BRAC, an international development organization in Bangladesh, that uses a similar ECD model, for a south-to-south partnership.

Underlying SmartStart's growth strategy is a blended financing model. The organization already receives 18% of its funding from government sources and aims to increase this to 30% while continuing to shift mindsets around what is possible in ECD. Grace recognizes the importance of tapping into public funding streams to scale SmartStart's impact sustainably. At the same time, she is pioneering a social franchising model that empowers ECD practitioners to set their own pricing and invest in their infrastructure as they grow. Grace identified existing opportunities within the government and was able to organize a 24-month stipend to support practitioners when they begin their journey, which is paid for by the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs and the Department of Finance Treasury through The Jobs Fund. This approach provides a pathway to entrepreneurship and self-sufficiency for the practitioner, starting with what is readily available.

By putting quality ECD within reach of the poorest children, Grace aims to break intergenerational cycles of poverty and enable every child to start school on track developmentally. SmartStart is building an evidence base to prove that a nationwide shift on this scale is possible. Through Grace's multi-pronged strategy, SmartStart is driving systemic change in the ECD sector and building a powerful movement behind its vision of a future where all children can thrive.

Grace was born and raised in the Free state, during the middle of apartheid in a community with prevalent poverty and inequality. Although fortunate that her circumstances were better than those around her in her community due to her parents being educated professionals, she was often aware and troubled by the stark contrasts between herself and her peers, often feeling that she needed to do something about it. She would go on to study social work in university, leading to a 35-year lengthy career dedicated to addressing social injustice and health inequities in South Africa. One of her milestones during this period was organizing a group of underprivileged mothers who had children living with intellectual disabilities, Grace would orchestrate marches to raise awareness of their plights, lead fundraising activities and later put together a proposal for funding which led to the first school for children with intellectual disabilities being built in the area. In 2002, Grace pivoted to take on the HIV/AIDS crisis, later becoming CEO (Chief Executive Officer) of loveLife, a national youth HIV prevention program. There she led efforts that successfully reduced infection rates, demonstrating the potential for large-scale impact.

It was through her work in mental health and HIV/AIDS that Grace realized the need to address societal issues upstream, as early in life as possible. While clinical interventions were critical, she saw that they often came too late, after significant damage had already occurred. Her accomplishments at loveLife showed her the power of prevention and the importance of reaching young people before problems took root. Grace saw early childhood development as the key to disrupting cycles of poverty and poor health outcomes. This led her to join SmartStart in 2016 as its founding CEO to bring the idea conceptualized by the DG Murray Trust, the Hollard Foundation Trust and Elma Philanthropies in South Africa, to life.

When Grace came on board, SmartStart was envisioned as a community-based playgroup model to expand access to early learning. However, through her leadership and vision, she developed it into a far more innovative and ambitious social enterprise. Grace built a holistic approach that went beyond just providing direct services. One of Grace's defining qualities is her creativity and resourcefulness in overcoming obstacles. Grace's entrepreneurial spirit and determination to find a way forward despite the odds are the driving force behind SmartStart's success.