The Minister of Basic Education, Ms Siviwe Gwarube, together with Education Outcomes Fund Chief Programme Officer, Milena Castellnou, National Treasury and donors, Yellowwoods, First Rand Foundation, The Lego Foundation, Standard Bank Tutuwa Community Foundation and the Oppenheimer Memorial Trust, launched the R496 million ECCE Education Outcomes Fund on 1 December 2025, to increase access to quality early learning in the country.

The Department of Basic Education (DBE) is thrilled that the private sector is heeding the call to invest in strengthening foundational learning in South African schooling. Sharing their sentiments around the Fund, various representatives from the NGO sector, community organisations, donors and philanthropic partners saluted the South African Government for prioritising ECD as one of its focus areas in nurturing young minds through education.

Minister Gwarube mentioned in her keynote address that strengthening the foundations of learning across the full continuum of early childhood care and education remained vital. She said: “Today we launch not just a fund, but a new way of doing things in South Africa – a way that is collaborative, accountable, outcomes-driven, and unapologetically focused on the child. Our 2030 Strategy is clear: South Africa must pursue a publicly planned, publicly coordinated, mixed-provisioning model for Early Childhood Care and Education. Government cannot, and should not, do this alone. Working with the Education Outcomes Fund, National Treasury and provinces, we have mapped communities with the greatest need and coordinated funding, both public and philanthropic, to support high impact implementing partners. Through this fund, 115,000 more children will gain access to quality early learning programmes; and 2,000 early learning centres will receive structured support to improve learning environments, teaching and developmental outcomes. These numbers are more than statistics. They represent 115,000 children who will enter Grade 1 ready to thrive, and 2,000 early learning centres that will walk a structured, evidence-based improvement pathway rather than receiving once-off, fragmented support. But more than the numbers, this Fund allows us to build a new model of partnership, one where accountability is tied to outcomes, where innovation is embraced, and where we collectively pioneer solutions that can shape the next decade of Early Childhood Care and Education delivery”.