School readiness is a pivotal point for a child’s learning trajectory and later success in life (Duncan et al. 2007; Heckman & Karapakula 2019; Ramey & Ramey 2004; UNICEF 2019). Benefits of school readiness include later school achievements, better economic, psychological and health outcomes, as well as multi-generational benefits (Belfield et al. 2006; Black et al. 2017; Heckman & Karapakula 2019; UNICEF 2019). The economic investment in school readiness also outweighs the cost implications of remedial input, grade repetition, teen pregnancy, drug use, high school drop-out and long-term unemployment (Campbell et al. 2002; Heckman & Karapakula 2019). Children growing up in poverty are at higher risk of not reaching milestones, such as school readiness (Sambu & Hall 2019). This is a particular concern in South Africa, where about 60% of children are growing up in poverty (Maluleke 2020), and up to 50% of children entering Grade 1, do not test ready for school (Janse Van Rensburg 2015). One of the main contributing factors is a lack of teacher training (Janse Van Rensburg 2015; Ramey & Ramey 2004).

One of the problems with school readiness in South Africa is the lack of consistency in the terms used to define and describe it and related concepts in government documents and research publications. While school readiness is multidimensional, only some dimensions are commonly referred to and included in published research, for example, cognitive development such as grasp of colours and shapes, or socio-emotional or behavioural readiness. These definitions do not represent the scope of school readiness within our context. This contrasts with the UNICEF definition that includes physical well-being, social and emotional competence and cognitive and communication abilities, overall curiosity and motivation to learn, often referred to as school readiness skills (UNICEF 2012). The UNICEF also includes getting the child, school, and family ready for school. However, in order to do this, there needs to be a common understanding of what school readiness is. This common understanding needs to extend to preschool teachers who may not have a formal qualification but are caring for children in early childhood development (ECD) centres.

The definition of school readiness often referenced in South African publications is from an American publication and is defined as a learner being physically, cognitively, affectively, normatively, socio-culturally and linguistically ready for their school career (Powell 2010). Similarly, Williams et al. (2019) define school readiness within the American context as readiness in the child that includes physical well-being and sensory motor development, social and emotional development, approaches to learning, language development and general knowledge and cognition. Each of these aspects of school readiness in turn includes skills such as early literacy and math skills. These authors concluded that certain qualities are essential for a child’s readiness for school, such as physical and nutritional well-being, intellectual skills, a child’s motivation to learn, as well as their social-emotional capacity and support. Although definitions of school readiness are available in the literature, these definitions may not be accessible to all preschool teachers and parents of young children. In a multi-lingual society like South Africa, a clear summary of the concept of school readiness and each of its components in easy to read and non-technical language would promote a common understanding of school readiness among all key stakeholders.

A systematic review on the relationship between teacher education and the quality of ECD concludes that higher teacher qualifications significantly correlate with higher quality early childhood education and care (Manning et al. 2017). The UNESCO also prioritised the training of early childhood educators in an effort to improve the quality of early childhood education and care, especially for vulnerable and disadvantaged children (Sun, Rao & Pearson 2015). An important component to this education is knowing what school readiness is, and how to develop it. Excell (2016), however, argues that such a framework lacks definitions that are contributed to and understood by stakeholders and thus, to define quality in ECD, research must include participatory methods which in turn must include all stakeholder groups.

In order to empower all South Africans who take care of young children and prepare them for school, there needs to be a common understanding of what school readiness is, explained in simple terms. A plain language summary (PLS) of a contextual definition of school readiness could assist in this process and was created by making use of a concept analysis method. A clear, eight-step iterative process to carefully examine a concept, as outlined by Walker and Avant (2011), was used to explore school readiness within a low-resource setting in South Africa to develop a PLS to present to stakeholders. These stakeholders include teachers and caretakers of young children in low-resource communities in South Africa, as well as experts in education and motor development, such as lecturers in education and occupational therapy. A PLS is typically used for stakeholders in consensus methods to make brief, jargon-free information available to a non-expert audience (Edgell & Rosenberg 2022; Kerwer et al. 2021; Löhr, Weinhardt & Sieber 2020).

Concept analysis traditionally follows an eight-step process, as outlined in the work of Walker and Avant (2011) presented in Table 1. However, to create a PLS of these concepts, a seven-step process as suggested by Dormer et al. (2022) is followed, as presented in Table 2. These two processes were followed sequentially to create the nontechnical literature review.

The 41 articles included were published in a variety of South African, African and international journals. Eleven journals published one of the included articles each. Two articles each were published in the African Journal of Psychological Assessment, Early Childhood Education Journal, South African Journal of Education and Australasian Journal of Early Childhood. Three were published in Early Child Development and Care, and four articles in Child: Care, Health and Development. Five were published in the South African Journal of Occupational Therapy and 10 in the South African Journal of Childhood Education. The included articles were published between 1994 and 2022, with more than 50% (n = 21) published in the last 4 years (2019–2022).

The cumulative definition of school readiness in South Africa, drawn from these articles, is a multidimensional concept that includes readiness considerations in behavioural, intellectual, language, literacy, numeracy, physical, socio-emotional and classroom domains.

Behavioural readiness refers to a child’s ability to adapt easily and effectively to the classroom environment without emotional disturbance. A child is expected to be able to manage their own behaviour through inhibitory control, self-regulation and normative adjustment.

Intellectual readiness is described as a child’s preparation for the classroom setting through previous cognitive and intellectual stimulation, including the development of sufficient general knowledge to engage in the classroom environment. This includes the cognitive skills of attention, concentration, following instructions, reasoning and problem-solving and memory skills.

Language readiness refers to the communication and language skills needed for engaging in classroom activities. Included in this is sufficient vocabulary, receptive and expressive language, phonemic awareness and listening and speaking skills.

Literacy readiness includes a sufficient understanding of concepts needed for learning to read and write. Emergent literacy skills such as interest in reading, alphabet knowledge, reading some words and stories and spelling are included. Furthermore, visual perceptual skills such as spatial orientation, foreground, background and organisation of visual information are also essential for literacy readiness.

Numeracy readiness includes knowledge of basic concepts (such as colours, shapes, sequencing and comparisons) numerical understanding, counting and number identification and number line estimation.

Physical readiness comprises the physical and motor development needed to meet the demands of formal education. This development includes motor skills (e.g. gross motor, fine motor), sensory-motor skills, perceptual-motor skills and all writing skills.

Socio-emotional readiness for school readiness means that a child is not only emotionally, socially and culturally ready for school, but also includes socio-cultural and social emotional readiness for the demands of formal schooling.

A child who is classroom ready can meet the challenges of the classroom setting through independence, managing their own activities of daily living, and they have mastered classroom skills and play. They are also classroom ready in terms of their spiritual education and mental well-being.

School readiness has been established as an important milestone in any child’s life, as it determines the path to later success in life (Duncan et al. 2007; Heckman & Karapakula 2019; Ramey & Ramey 2004; UNICEF 2019). An increase in available research addressing school readiness and the contextual factors affecting school readiness promotion, within the last 4 years, highlights not only the importance of this milestone, but also the urgency in improving school readiness rates within our context (Janse Van Rensburg 2015).

Although the context of high-income countries and low- and middle-income countries may be vastly different, and the road to school readiness may differ significantly as well, the concept of what school readiness entails is very similar in scope and qualities. In this concept analysis, the definition of school readiness that was developed was broad, and included eight different areas of competence or attributes that children need to attain before they start school. Some of these areas of competence are similar to the way in which school readiness is defined more broadly. However, we also found that only four articles included all eight attributes in some form within their definition. This suggests that most publications focus on only a few contributing attributes and presents a limited scope of contextual school readiness within the South African context.

There were no unique features of the definition of school readiness within the South African context. This is surprising because of the unique context of South Africa, but also confirms that there are qualities that are essential for a child’s readiness for school just as Williams et al. (2019) suggest. These findings were significant because the attributes of school readiness do not seem to be context-bound. However, this does not suggest that the promotion of school readiness within a specific context is not context-bound. It is recommended that the definition of school readiness developed through this concept analysis will be used in future publications as the standard, contextual definition of school readiness in South Africa.

The new understanding of school readiness that has emerged from this article is important because a stable, non-contextually bound set of attributes included in a child’s readiness for school now shifts the problem of low school readiness rates in South Africa, to the process of promoting school readiness and thus the lack of quality in preschool education in South Africa. The National Integrated ECD Policy (Republic of South Africa 2015) has a goal to provide comprehensive quality, age and developmental stage appropriate opportunities for learning by 2030. This must be accessible for all children from birth until formal school starts and will form the foundation for socio-emotional, physical, intellectual and language development through play and other related, recognised methods for early learning. Their fourth objective is to ensure all caregivers, teachers and ECD practitioners have the required knowledge and skills to provide quality services to children. Manning et al. (2017) established the link between the quality of teacher education and the quality of ECD education and care. This is also confirmed by Ramey and Ramey (2004), and echoed by most of the articles identified for this concept analysis. Teachers’ and caregivers’ sustainable and affordable access to culture-centred teacher training content must continue to be a research priority.

Another key outcome of this research was the development of a PLS to open opportunities to collaborate with teachers to identify which components of school readiness they are already working on and increase awareness of those that are frequently neglected. The PLS also opens opportunities to collaboratively develop strategies to improve school readiness in specific schools or areas using a culture-centred education approach. This would entail developing culture-centred teacher training content for each concept within school readiness within South Africa. It also requires a careful approach to the dissemination of information to a wide audience, through magazines, newspaper articles, YouTube content, mobile applications and government publications.

A systematic approach to the concept analysis of school readiness within the South African context as well as the development of the PLS of the new definition was taken. Stakeholders were included and they contributed to the development of the case studies, as well as the PLS definition. Limitations included the fact that the coding of all quotations, concepts and groupings was done by only one researcher, although experts in the method of concept analysis were consulted during each phase of the analysis.

The aim of the study was to investigate the concept of school readiness within the South African context, as well as to develop a PLS for dissemination to stakeholders. The process resulted in a new definition of school readiness in South Africa that included the following concepts: behavioural, intellectual, language, literacy, numeracy, physical, socio-emotional and classroom readiness. This new definition was used to develop a PLS that will be used in future research studies within South Africa, as well as be disseminated through various sustainable channels to promote teachers’ access to knowledge and ultimately improve the quality of ECD in South Africa. Future research can strengthen and further refine this PLS of school readiness in the South African context by testing and validating the PLS of school readiness with the intended end-users and within the intended context.