Gwarube launches formidable nationwide ECD centre registration drive – SABC Information

Basic Education Minister Siviwe Gwarube has launched the Bana Pele Early Childhood Development (ECD) centres registration across the country.  The intention is to get all ECD centres across the country registered.

Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana has previously announced that the government has allocated R10 billion towards early childhood development.

In an attempt to improve early childhood development, Minister Gwarube engages with provincial stakeholders in the sector.

She reiterates her stance that for numeracy and literacy rates to improve, teaching and learning should start at the ECD level.

The minister says this will deal with the current challenges of learners in senior primary school who cannot read for meaning and spell.

“In South Africa, we have got a literacy and numeracy crisis, where about 80% of children who were tested were said to not be able to read or write in any language.

Early Childhood Development Leadership Summit

“Our view is that to fix this crisis, we need to make sure they have a strong foundation and that strong foundation is early childhood development. So we are saying that we have the ECD function within the Department of Basic Education (DBE). We want to make sure we are targeting and reaching those children who are between the ages of zero to four, because we want to put them into formalised ECD centres where there is a curriculum,” Gwarube says.

In the Northern Cape, the provincial education department says there are several challenges related to ECDs in the province, a sizeable number of them are not registered.

MEC Abraham Vosloo says the current strategy will assist in regulating the sector. “We have ECD in the education space for the last two to three years, and the formalisation thereof will take quite a lot. There are a number of challenges in relation to infrastructure, in relation to the registration of these ECD centres in the community and ECD practitioner training and development, and land available for these ECD centres. So there is a variety of challenges and as the department of education in the province, we are committed to deal with the challenges.”

Northern Cape Premier, Dr Zamani Saul, announces that 10 ECD centres will be built annually in the province over the next 10 years, at a price of around R4 million per centre.

The Department says it has set a target to register about 10 000 ECD centres before the end of the year.

Meanwhile, President Ramaphosa, speaking at the Bana Pele Early Childhood Development Leadership Summit in Johannesburg earlier this year, said the government erred in not ensuring ECD 30 years ago.

ECD Summit | Govt, private sector unite to expand access to ECDs