Johannesburg – Plans to migrate early childhood development (ECD) centres from the Department of Social Development (DSD) to the Department of Basic Education (DBE) are at an advanced stage, the departments told legislators this week.
President Cyril Ramaphosa announced during his State of the Nation Address last year that ECD should migrate to the DBE.
At the centre of the migration process is the improvement of the development of children and the quality of ECD education in providing the best support to children from an early age.
The two departments have now established relevant governance structures namely; human resources; finance and budgets; legislation and contracts; immovable and movable assets; communication and stakeholder engagement; monitoring and evaluation, data and information, and ECD programme implementation.
The DBE and DSD, in a joint statement, said the workstreams will be meeting regularly to provide feedback to the ministers concerned.
“Based on the recommendation of the Office of the Chief State Law Advisors the proclamations have been prepared and will be processed accordingly,” reads the statement.
“The first proclamation relates to the transfer of the powers and functions to the minister responsible for basic education and the second proclamation is for the transfer of power and functions to the MECs responsible for basic education in each province.”
The proclamations specify that the date of the implementation of the ECD function migration will be April 1 2022. Legislators requested that a workshop session be convened to allow for a more in-depth discussion on matters related to ECD policy and programme issues.
This will also include its concomitant implications for ECD service delivery within the basic education environment.
Regarding the ECD stimulus fund to aid the sector which has been one of the hardest hit by Covid-19 because parents kept their children away from the facilities and withheld fees, DSD spokesperson Lumka Oliphant said it received 28 283 applications, which translates to 125 407 staff members.
She said the department was busy with the verification process and payment.
“This will assist in supporting the ECD sector in recovering from the [devastating] effects of the Covid-19 global pandemic and supplement the income generated by the ECD services through subsidising the cost of employment.”
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