South Africa’s youngest children are in crisis. Seven out of ten children live in poverty and 1.15 million children aged 3-5 are not accessing any early learning opportunities, leaving them ill-prepared for formal schooling. Of those who do, 57% of the children accessing ECD programmes do not meet the early learning standards expected for their age, are stunted, or both.
In his State of the Nation Address on 6 February 2025, President Cyril Ramaphosa said that the government would register and formalise existing ECD centres and ensure that they have the facilities, training and materials they need to provide quality early learning.
Government’s ambitious and progressive 2030 Strategy for ECD Programmes, and the Bana Pele mass registration drive, can increase access to ECD for more children, but won’t be successful without an increased budget.
Presently, less than 0.2% of government expenditure is allocated to early learning and nutritional support for children aged 0-5. Very little additional funding has been made available to reflect the political intent to expand ECD access, with dire consequences for children and the ECD workforce.
For example, the ECD subsidy, which is the main funding instrument for enabling access to ECD programmes for disadvantaged children, has been frozen at R17 per child per day since 2019, eroding its value by a quarter. This means that thousands of ECD programmes have been left worse off by rising inflation, leaving them unable to provide quality meals for children, equip their facilities, and pay their staff a decent wage.
Until the subsidy value is restored, the government is effectively shrinking its support for ECD in low-income communities.
We urge National Treasury to:
- Restore the value of the ECD subsidy to its 2019 purchasing power of R23 per child per day immediately, at a cost of R1.2 billion. Commit to increasing the value to R46 by 2030.
- Provide subsidised access to ECD programmes for an additional one million children by 2027.
- Double funding for ECD infrastructure and registration support to R300 million in 2025/26.
Investing in ECD services is essential to tackle the triple challenge of unemployment, poverty and inequality by laying a foundation for improved educational outcomes, gender equity, and inclusive economic growth. Implementing the 2030 Strategy for ECD Programmes would help create 70 000 care and early learning enterprises and support the creation of 300 000 new care jobs.
An expansion of ECD services to all children could reduce childcare burdens for up to 2 million women, promoting their equal economic participation.
It is clear that an investment in ECD is an investment in the just and equitable society we strive for.
