Funding of Early Childhood Development (ECD) centres was one of the dominating discussions during meetings of both the Standing Committee on Appropriations and the Select Committee on Appropriations last week at Parliament.
The National Integrated Policy for Early Childhood Development was approved by Cabinet in December 2015, to assert government’s commitment to providing the building blocks for access to quality early stimulation, education and care for all the children, with particular focus on children in vulnerable communities.
According to the national Department of Social Development (DSD), in order for the National Treasury to enhance the implementation of the ECD policy, it has allocated R812.8 million as a conditional grant for 2017/18 (R319.8 million) and 2018/19 (R493.06 million) financial years. This was done to enable the Department of Social Development to better control and ring-fence the expansion of ECD centres in the country in line with the approved national integrated ECD policy. The grant is divided into two components, the subsidy and maintenance components.
The subsidy component is aimed at assisting registered centres that are not fully funded from the equitable share, fully or conditionally registered centres that are not funded, and partial care facilities which offer ECD programmes but are not funded. The subsidy also targets qualifying children from birth to five years or until they enter Grade R, and payment is at a rate of R15 per child for a maximum period of 264 days.
The maintenance component is aimed at ensuring that ECD centres comply with the health and safety norms and standards as identified by the DSD. The maximum value to be spent per ECD centre for maintenance improvements is R100 000, and approval for any amount exceeding the R100 000 should be obtained from the Head of Department (HOD) and the Chief Financial Officer (CFO).
Stakeholders attending public hearings on the 2018 Appropriation Bill hosted by the Standing Committee on Appropriations, told the committee that education is the key driver for reducing inequality sustainably, but it needs a much stronger base for early childhood development. One of these stakeholders, the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) maintained that solid educational foundations are key to any future educational, labour market and societal success, and investment in early years to build solid foundations means less need to play catch-up later. Stakeholders were of the view that too much of government funds, which could be directed towards ECD, are wasted on tertiary dropouts and high school repeats, among other things.
The HSRC, while applauding fee-free tertiary education, highlighted that the unintended consequences of fee-free tertiary education may be a reduction of the schooling budget, and in particular the budget for early learning. They, among other stakeholders, recommended that the first five years of school/first 1 000 days of school (Grade RR, R, 1, 2, 3) be prioritised to improve the pace of educational outcome changes.
Provincial spending of the ECD conditional grant, with the exception of two provinces, concurs with the sentiments that more funding is needed in the area of ECD. SeCOA was told that KwaZulu-Natal and Western Cape provinces were the highest spenders of the conditional grant at 100% and 98% respectively, followed by Gauteng province at 93%.
Both the DSD and National Treasury told the committee that the Eastern Cape and North West provinces are struggling to spend their share of the allocated ECD grant. The Eastern Cape province, which was allocated an amount of R56.3 million for the 2017/18 financial year, had spent a mere R27.2 million (48%) of this allocation, the committee heard. It was further highlighted that the ECD subsidy in Eastern Cape was set to benefit 11 047, but the actual beneficiaries were 8 420 and while ECD subsidies should be provided services for 264 days, the Eastern Cape only provided services for 209 days.
Meanwhile the North West province, which was allocated a budget of R32.7 million managed to only spent R20.3 million (62%) of this allocation. The province also only provided services on 248 days out of the recommended 264 days.
While reasons for the failure to adequately spend these allocations were, among other things, highlighted as the impact of strike action, maintenance quotations exceeding the R100 000 limit and delays in the tender processes, SeCOA said that these are feeble excuses for the provinces’ failure to spend the conditional grant.
While increased funding of ECD centres remains a key stakeholder recommendation in ensuring the success of the National Integrated Policy for Early Childhood Development, the HSRC also drew focus to the implementation thereof. The ECD conditional grant should thus not only include the subsidy and maintenance component, but also focus on the first 1 000 days of schooling. Programming for the first 1 000 days should not only be family-centred and address the needs of high risk families, but also focus on maternal mental health and its effect on child development.
By Felicia Lombard
21 may 2018
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