Thrive by Five Index 2024
South Africa, 2024
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Reference ID
zaf-dd-tb5i-2024-v1
Producer(s)
DataDrive2030
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Metadata
Created on
Mar 05, 2026
Last modified
Jun 16, 2026
Page views
331897
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Identification
Survey ID number
zaf-dd-tb5i-2024-v1
Title
Thrive by Five Index 2024
Abbreviation or Acronym
TB5I 2024
Country
| Name | Country code |
|---|---|
| South Africa | zaf |
Study type
Thrive by Five Index
Other identifiers
| Type | Identifier |
|---|---|
| doi | https://doi.org/10.25828/k91x-gm18 |
Abstract
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)
- Inform decision-making and actions to improve key development outcomes for young children; and
- Examine the developmental risks facing non-enrolled children through the small sub-study
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. The non-enrolled 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 and weight)
Households and Primary Caregivers: Demographics, household characteristics, home learning environment, home stressors, primary caregiver characteristics.
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)
- Inform decision-making and actions to improve key development outcomes for young children; and
- Examine the developmental risks facing non-enrolled children through the small sub-study
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. The non-enrolled 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 and weight)
Households and Primary Caregivers: Demographics, household characteristics, home learning environment, home stressors, primary caregiver characteristics.
Kind of Data
Observation data/ratings [obs]
Unit of Analysis
Individuals and institutions
Version
Version Description
V1: Edited, anonymised data for public distribution
Scope
Notes
Primary caregiver interviews for the enrolled sample were the only interviews that were conducted using Computer Assisted Telephone Interviews (CATI). The child assessments, principal and practitioner interviews were all face-to-face.
Coverage
Geographic Coverage
The survey for the sample of enrolled children has national coverage, all nine of South Africa’s provinces were included. The survey for the statistically non-representative sub-study of non-enrolled children covers three provinces, Gauteng, Kwa-Zulu Natal and Western Cape.
Geographic Unit
The lowest level of geographic aggregation in the data is province.
Universe
For the enrolled sample, the target population includes children between the ages of 50-59 months who were enrolled in an Early Learning Programme (ELP) in South Africa at the time of data collection. An ELP includes any pre-school, nursery school, creche, ECD centre, Grade R class, playgroup or mobile ECD service that was operational and open for at least eight hours per week and had at least one enrolled child of eligible age. The survey also includes the Primary Caregiver (PCG) of assessed children, and principals and practitioners who worked at the sampled ELPs. For the non-enrolled sample, the target population includes children between the ages of 50-59 months in listed households located in low-income areas of three provinces (Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal and Western Cape), who were not enrolled in an ELP at the time of data collection, as well as their PCGs.
Geographic bounding box
| West | East | South | North |
|---|---|---|---|
| 14.062712 | 33.090851 | -35.101934 | -22.105999 |
Producers and sponsors
Primary investigators
| Name |
|---|
| DataDrive2030 |
Producers
| Name | Affiliation | Role |
|---|---|---|
| Department of Basic Education | Government of South Africa | Project oversight |
Funding Agency/Sponsor
| Name | Role |
|---|---|
| FirstRand Foundation | Funder |
| LEGO Foundation | Funder |
| This Day Foundation | Funder |
| Yellowwoods | Funder |
Study authorization
Authorization Date
2024-08
Agency
| Agency name | Abbreviation |
|---|---|
| University of Cape Town | UCT |
Authorization Statement
The Thrive by Five Index 2024 received ethics clearance from the Ethics Review Committee of the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Cape Town in August 2024 (Reference #: PSY2024-032).
Sampling
Sampling Procedure
A three-stage stratified sampling design was used. Before sampling, 38 strata were formed using province and a weighted school quintile, where the weights were based on the number of Grade 3 learners in each school. The reason for there not being 45 strata (nine provinces multiplied by five weighted school quintiles) is that in all provinces except Gauteng and the Western Cape, weighted school quintiles 4 and 5 were collapsed into one due to the limited number of wards (unit selected at the first stage of the sampling) in the top two quintiles. Within each stratum, three-stage sampling was implemented with wards as the sampling unit for the first stage (in a small number of cases wards were combined to create a feasible enumeration area), ELPs as the sampling unit for the second stage and children as the sampling unit for the third stage. More detailed information about the sampling procedure can be found in the Thrive by Five Technical Manual.
Weighting
As the 2024 index is a sample-based survey, to produce statistically representative estimates, weights need to be applied. Each weight (ward, ELP, child) is the inverse of the probability of a ward/ELP/child being selected at each of the three stages set out below. The probability of selection is the product of the following probabilities:
- probability that a ward is selected = (number of wards selected in stratum)*(grade 3 learners in that ward)/(grade 3 learners in stratum).
- probability that an ELP is selected = (number of ELPs selected in that ward)/(number of ELPs in that ward).
- probability that a child is selected = (number of children selected in that ELP)/(number of eligible children in ELP).
- probability that a ward is selected = (number of wards selected in stratum)*(grade 3 learners in that ward)/(grade 3 learners in stratum).
- probability that an ELP is selected = (number of ELPs selected in that ward)/(number of ELPs in that ward).
- probability that a child is selected = (number of children selected in that ELP)/(number of eligible children in ELP).
Survey instrument
Questionnaires
Eight survey instruments were used to collect data:
1. Child Sampling Form
2. ELOM 4&5 Year Assessment Tool (ELOM 4&5) direct child assessment (valid for children aged 50-69 months)
3. Social-Emotional Functioning (SEF) Rating Scale - practitioner rating of child’s SEF
4. Learning Programme Quality Assessment (LPQA v2) classroom observation tool
5. Facility Observation Form
6. Principal questionnaire
7. Practitioner questionnaire
8. Primary caregiver questionnaire
1. Child Sampling Form
2. ELOM 4&5 Year Assessment Tool (ELOM 4&5) direct child assessment (valid for children aged 50-69 months)
3. Social-Emotional Functioning (SEF) Rating Scale - practitioner rating of child’s SEF
4. Learning Programme Quality Assessment (LPQA v2) classroom observation tool
5. Facility Observation Form
6. Principal questionnaire
7. Practitioner questionnaire
8. Primary caregiver questionnaire
Data collection
Dates of Data Collection
| Start | End | Cycle |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-10-28 | 2024-11-21 | Round 2 |
Time Method
Cross-section [cross section]
Data Collection Mode
- Face-to-face computer-assisted interviews [CAPI]
Data Collectors
| Name | Role |
|---|---|
| DataDrive2030 | Data collectors |
Distributor information
access_policy
Access authority
Access conditions
Creative Commons CC-BY attribution only access and use license
Citation requirements
DataDrive2030. Thrive by Five Index 2024 [dataset]. Version 1. Cape Town: DataDrive2030 [producer], 2026. Cape Town: DataFirst [distributor], 2026. DOI: https://doi.org/10.25828/k91x-gm18
Deposit requirements
The data re-user agrees to send DataFirst a link to research publications that are based on the data.
Metadata production
Producers
| Name | Affiliation | Role |
|---|---|---|
| DataFirst | University of Cape Town | Metadata producer |
Date of Metadata Production
2026-03-04
Metadata version
DDI Document version
Version 1