Basic Education Minister commits R10 billion to early childhood development

JOHANNESBURG - Basic Education Minister Siviwe Gwarube has announced that R10 billion in funding has been set aside to support early childhood development (ECD) programmes nationwide.

She was speaking at the release of the latest Thrive by Five Index findings, which provide a snapshot of how four-year-olds across the country are developing.

The index highlighted the significant number of children in rural and under-resourced communities who are not receiving the appropriate building blocks and are being left behind in their development.

Gwarube emphasised that building a stronger, more stable education system starts with the foundations laid in early childhood.

“It’s also affirming the fact that we can fiddle all we want with remedial actions later on in a child’s life, but if we neglect the foundations, those remedial actions will either be too costly or simply ineffective.”

She added that the index has given the department the tools to make data-driven decisions.

“The financial injection therefore puts us in a better place to bring those not enrolled children into the access net. Because of this data, we also have a clear sense of the context, the very real challenges impacting children and practitioners, and we can now really respond decisively.”