Basic Education Deputy Minister, Dr Reginah Mhaule, supported by senior management officials, briefed the Portfolio Committee on Basic Education on the status of Early Childhood Development (ECD) on 6 June 2023. The function shift from the Department of Social Development (DSD) to the Department of Basic Education (DBE) took place on 1 April 2022, and a new publicly planned, publicly co-ordinated and publicly funded mixed provisioning model is on the cards for the sector to enable the expansion of access to early learning opportunities.

The DBE reported that 1.3 million children aged between 3 and 5 are not attending any form of early learning, and that the access gap for 3.5 million children aged 0 to 2 is unknown. In addition, only 45% of children accessing early learning are developmentally on track. The DBE further estimates that 66% of the poorest children are not in Early Learning Programmes (ELPs).

“For all South African children to access opportunities for learning (standardised quality ELPs); good health; adequate nutrition; safety and security; and responsive caregiving, services should be delivered through a government-led, inter-departmental approach to access the six social justice principals,” explained DDG, Ms Simoné Geyer. She added that National Treasury has allocated an amount of R1.8 billion over a three-year period (2023 – 2025) for expanding access to the ECD subsidy, as well as the provision of educational toys, books and nutrition to the 42,000 registered ECD Centres. Community-based ECD provision, using existing structures and community centres, and the involvement of parents will be the foundation of the model.

Whilst presenting the new ECD service delivery model, Dr Janeli Kotze, Acting Director for ECD said that, “two pockets of funding are currently available from the DBE for the provision of the ECD subsidy: the Equitable Share and Conditional Grant combined at R3.87 billion. Current implementation of the comprehensive package of services to all children needs to be strengthened to ensure that all role players are playing their part. The Inter-Ministerial Committee will strengthen inter-departmental collaboration and coordination, since the Inter-Ministerial Committee will be responsible for driving the delivery of integrated services to children”.

The DBE’s Chief Director for Legal Services, Advocate Shalili Misser, explained that the guardian of the Children’s Act, 2005 is the Minister responsible for social development. The Children’s Act regulates the support and protection of children and not the education of children as encapsulated in the South African Schools Act, 1996. The Proclamation published in 2022, transferred Chapter 5 and 6 of the Children’s Act to the DBE. Therefore, the Minister responsible for basic education now has the power to implement ECD. Short-term legislative reform for ECD is required to address the defects or limitations in the current form of the aforementioned Chapters in order to make it fit for purpose for the DBE. It is anticipated that the Children’s Amendment Bill will assist the DBE to make progress towards the implementation of the ECD goal. However, it is recommended that an ECD Act be considered as a long-term solution.

Moving forward, the immediate steps for ECD will be building on the work done by the National Education Collaboration Trust (NECT) on the development of a Service Delivery Model and building on the Cuban Service Delivery Model. The DBE will be engaging with Finland researchers on their model of curriculum implementation and programmes. To bring about short-term alleviation of the regulatory barriers, the DBE will be working with the Reducing Red Tape initiative, and affect further changes to the Children’s Amendment Bill for ministerial approval and gazetting. In addition, a qualifications framework for the Human Resource Development Plan for practitioners and ECD subsidy guidelines will be finalised, along with a deep-dive study on the implementation of the National Curriculum Framework. The National Integrated ECD Policy will also be revised to reflect the DBE’s service delivery model.

Committee Chairperson, Ms Bongiwe Mbinqo-Gigaba, said the Committee noted the progress made thus far. “This important function is required to ensure that our most disadvantaged and vulnerable children thrive in their early years for a solid foundation to be laid”.