To officially mark the momentous occasion of the Early Childhood Development (ECD) shift from the Department of Social Development (DSD) to the DBE a jointly hosted handover event will be taking place at Freedom Park on 1 April 2022.
On the day, the Minister of Social Development, Ms Lindiwe Zulu, will officially hand over the ECD function to Minister of Basic Education, Mrs Angie Motshekga. The purpose of the event will be to communicate, amongst others, the mutual partnership and commitment by both Departments, along with various other Departments to the prioritisation of ECD as a building block towards learning and developing through play. Other Ministers who will be responsible for core functions regarding integrated ECD service delivery, will be the Ministers of Health; Finance; Home Affairs; Higher Education; Science and Innovation; and Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs. “Collaborative support in the form of a pledge, will be required to support the prioritisation of integrated service delivery. I would like to express my gratitude to the DSD for their support to the DBE during the preparations for the function shift. Since the announcement, our Departments have been working together very closely towards its realisation. It is my understanding that all the administrative processes are on track and that all milestones have been met to ensure that this objective is achieved,” added Minister Motshekga in respect of the ECD shift,” said Minister Motshekga.
Ms Kulula Manona, Chief Director for Foundations for Learning and Dr Janeli Kotze, from the DBE’s Research Coordination Monitoring and Evaluation Directorate, assisted with demystifying some of the misconceptions saying: “Since the majority of ECD programmes are owned by Non-Governmental Organisations, communities and private institutions, they will not be affected by the function shift. Rather, the DBE will become responsible to support, subsidise and regulate the programmes according to the specifications in Chapter 5 and Chapter 6 of the Children’s Act. If an ECD programme is registered with the DSD, their registration status will be transferred automatically to the DBE. If an ECD programme’s registration status lapses in 2022, they will need to renew their registration with the DBE. However, if an ECD programme is unregistered, they will need to register with the DBE. The DBE will follow the Vangasali registration process for all new registrations”.
A few other areas for noting were that as from 1 April 2022, the DBE will become responsible for paying subsidies as the DSD has been previously doing. ECD programmes should therefore still submit their business plans and apply for funding through the normal process for the DBE to continue with the payments from next year onwards. ECD practitioners are currently employed by ECD programmes and this will remain the case come 1 April 2022. The DBE will not become responsible for paying the salaries of ECD practitioners, and this will still be the responsibility of the ECD programmes. ECD programmes will remain the employers of ECD practitioners after the ECD function shift. The DBE is not expecting all ECD practitioners to be qualified before 1 April 2022, but are encouraging them to continue with their professional growth. The ECD qualifications of NQF Level 4 and NQF Level 5 are still relevant, and the Department would like to encourage all ECD practitioners to strive to attain these qualifications. In addition, the DBE will be developing an ECD Human Resource Strategic Workforce Plan to outline the qualifications that are available for ECD practitioners; the expectations in terms of competencies, skills and qualifications at different levels; flexible opportunities for training and development including recognition of prior learning; clear career paths and conditions of service.