South African Child Gauge 2008/2009

The South African Child Gauge is a special book about children in South Africa. It is put together every year by the Children’s Institute at the University of Cape Town, and helps people understand what needs to be done to improve the lives of all children in South Africa.

The book is divided into three parts:

Part One: Children and Law Reform
Part one discusses recent legislative developments affecting children. In this issue there is commentary on the Child Justice Act, the Criminal Law Sentencing) Amendment Act, the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, policy developments in education, the Regulations to the Children’s Act (as amended), the Social Service Professions Bill and Regulations to the Social Assistance Act.

Part Two: Meaningful access to basic education
Part two presents a series of nine essays that examine children’s right to education and what is required to ensure meaningful access to basic education in South Africa. Essays focus on the right to education, meaningful access, budgetary frameworks and school-fee waivers, children who are out of school, the relationship between poverty and exclusion, partnerships between schools and communities, and what is required to build a strong foundation in numeracy and literacy.

Part Three: Children Count – The Numbers
Part three updates a set of key indicators on children’s socio-economic rights and comments on the extent to which these rights have been realised. The indicators track the demographics of children, care arrangements, and their access to social assistance, education, health-care services, housing, water, sanitation and electricity. The indicators are a special subset selected from the Children’s Institute website www.childrencount.ci.org.za.