Latest news with #EarlyChildhoodDevelopment
CTV News
6 days ago
- General
- CTV News
Nova Scotia announces expansion to school lunch program
Sweet and sour meatballs with rice and vegetables is one of the 40 meals being offered to Nova Scotia students under the province's new school lunch program. (Government of Nova Scotia/ Nova Scotia's School Lunch Program will return for its second year and will be serving more students. The program, which was introduced by the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development, began in the 2024-25 school year. This fall, the lunch program will expand to all middle and junior high schools, as well as continuing in elementary schools, feeding more than 104,000 students, a news release front the Department of Education and Early Child Development. The government says the Nova Scotia School Lunch Program will also be implementing changes after hearing from school communities, and introduce: new kid-approved menu options sustainable packing a more seamless ordering experience improved delivery and service standards More details and updates will be shared about the lunch program on before the start of the school year in September. For more Nova Scotia news, visit our dedicated provincial page
Daily Maverick
24-06-2025
- Health
- Daily Maverick
Mapping service gaps: How SA's children face barriers to essential developmental support
And almost half the municipalities (24 out of 52) have inadequate service delivery for children in nine or more sub-domains. Nearly five million children under the age of six in South Africa live in poverty. These children face barriers to achieving their full potential, shaped by factors beyond their control — where they grow up and what services are accessible to their families. The odds are stacked against them, making it harder to fully participate in society and the economy when they become adults. Thankfully, this trajectory is not fixed. Investing in adequate early childhood development can shift outcomes, particularly for children from poor backgrounds. The South African government's commitment of R10-billion over the next three years to strengthen early learning programmes is a major leap forward. However, early learning is just one of many drivers of child development. The full suite, known as the essential package, also includes adequate nutrition, social services, good health and having a responsive caregiver — all vital to realising children's constitutional rights. The services provided by the government, like clinics, waste removal, immunisation and clean water, are meant to underpin the essential package. They are critical. While South Africans have long known that service delivery is unequal and uneven, the full extent of the problem — especially how it affects children — hasn't always been clear. Now, open access research titled Supporting early childhood development through multi-dimensional service delivery in South Africa can pinpoint what public services are missing in 52 municipalities across the country using an Early Childhood Development (ECD) Services Index. And the finding is alarming: not a single municipality provides the full range of adequate services to support caregivers in providing the essential package for young children's development. The first-of-its-kind index — paired with maps — offers decision makers a bird's-eye view of the problem while also allowing them to zoom in on specific areas, helping to allocate funds, manpower and resources more effectively to address delivery gaps. Many services are delivered at a municipal level, such as waste removal, while others are delivered at a provincial level, such as healthcare. This tool can be used for decision making across all three spheres of government as a cross-cutting view of where attention should be focused. Poor services leave caregivers with impossible choices Public services create the environment in which caregiving takes place, either enabling or limiting a caregiver's ability to meet their child's needs. When public services are inadequate, caregivers are forced to choose between them, but the elements of the essential package cannot be substituted for each other. They are supposed to complement one another. Imagine this: A mother lives in a neighbourhood without a clinic nearby, so she's unable to get life-saving immunisations for her baby. There is no running water or working flush toilets, increasing the risk of disease. Her child is malnourished, and the combination of not eating enough and repeated infections affect her child's growth and brain development, and manifest as stunting — being too short for one's age. There are few safe spaces for her child to play, move and explore, to develop gross and fine motor skills. And, without access to a quality preschool, her child misses out on cognitive stimulation for language development and foundational learning. This scenario shows that while caregivers are primarily responsible for their children's wellbeing, the government must deliver services such as healthcare, infrastructure and education. But the state doesn't act alone. Aware of its limitations, the government leans on civil society and social partners to reach people in homes and neighbourhoods, through conduits like community health workers. Still, these efforts need to be scaled and expanded to reach more people. Mapping gaps in service delivery To ensure all children receive the essential package, we need to understand what is not working and why. That's where the ECD Services Index comes in. It applies the widely recognised Multidimensional Poverty Index approach to South African data to show where children are — or aren't — receiving the full range of services needed to support their development. The index is based on eight services identified as critical for all children to receive in the South African National Integrated Early Childhood Development Policy. These services are grouped into three main categories and broken down into 13 service areas, or sub-domains, with a minimum standard set for each. The minimum standard for each sub-domain is based on South African policy (such as the National Development Plan) or international best practice. For example, if fewer than 90% of children in a municipality are fully immunised — an international guideline — the area is considered to have inadequate provision of immunisation (which is one sub-domain in the healthcare domain). The index finds that almost half the municipalities (24 out of 52) have inadequate service delivery for children in nine or more sub-domains. This forces caregivers to choose between accessing elements of the essential package for their child — a decision they should never be asked to make. The index uses information from various local data sources spanning 2016 to 2021. While the difference in years is not a major concern since the indicators in question typically shift gradually over time — it's important to note that the data used was from before the Covid-19 pandemic and related lockdowns, which have deepened child poverty and worsened nutrition. This makes the need to collect new data and improve service delivery even more urgent. Practical uses for decision makers The index and accompanying maps will be particularly useful to the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Early Childhood Development, convened by President Cyril Ramaphosa in 2024. This committee brings together a host of national departments: Basic Education, Health, Social Development, Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Higher Education and Training, Employment and Labour, Sports, Arts and Culture, Correctional Services, Home Affairs, Police, the National Treasury and Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation. Unfortunately, the committee has not met regularly. As a consequence, efforts to coordinate across departments, align key performance indicators with children's outcomes and deliver the essential package have faced challenges. On the upside, tools like the index and maps can help refocus and strengthen these efforts moving forward. They also promote accountability by enabling civil society to track progress and raise the alarm when commitments are not met. Quality of service delivery matters. With the right data, tools, and political will, we can start shifting the odds in favour of every child, no matter where they are born. DM Dr Grace Leach is a technical analyst in financing for early childhood development. She holds a PhD in Economics from Stellenbosch University and is committed to working towards a reality where every child in South Africa thrives by five. Rahima Essop is the Communications Director of the DG Murray Trust (DGMT), a public innovator that invests in projects and opportunities to enhance early childhood development services and outcomes. Prof Dieter von Fintel is a Professor of Economics and Vice-Dean for Research in the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences at Stellenbosch University. His research focuses on human and economic development in the past and present.
Eyewitness News
13-06-2025
- General
- Eyewitness News
New crèches may have to close because of late payments by education department
Four Early Childhood Development (ECD) centres in Loskop (eMangweni), a rural area in the Drakensberg, have moved into new buildings but are struggling to stay open because the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Education has failed to pay subsidies on time. The subsidies are set by the national government, currently at R17 a day per child. Subsidies are expected to increase this year, for the first time since 2017, to R24 a day per child. GroundUp has previously reported on how late payments have affected hundreds of ECD centres in KZN. These late payments resulted in legal action, and the department was ordered to pay three crèches the subsidies owed them within 10 days. Five crèches in the Loskop area have new buildings provided through the Santa Shoebox Project but are currently struggling to receive funding. A fifth, due to move into new buildings soon, may have to downscale before then. Soul City Creche is one of the five centres affected. The last payment the crèche received, in March this year, was a back payment for November, December and January, says Cecilia Mbatha, the centre's founder. The centre is now owed around R35,000 by the department, and Mbatha says she is not sure how long it can continue operating. Soul City receives R7,000 a month from the department, which is supposed to cover 20 of its 58 children, says Mbatha. But the centre spends at least R4,000 a month just on food or those 20 children, she says. When the creche eventually does get paid, it will have to back pay its staff who have not received a salary for the last three months, says Mbatha. 'It's so terrible to work with people you can't even give R100 to. They've got their own families.' Soul City moved into its newly built crèche in 2020 when funding was still distributed by the Department of Social Development. According to Mbatha, there were issues with funding back then, but things got a lot worse with late payments when the KwaZulu-Natal department of education took over the grant payments in 2022. It's hard to work in a brand new building and still struggle for money, she says. Siphiwe Samangwe, another centre in the Loskop area, has not received funding since November last year. In total, the centre is owed around R58,344 by the department. The centre is also a beneficiary of the Santa Shoebox project and is due to move into a new building soon. But without funding, says principal Cynthia Mabasa, the centre will not be able to look after the 90 children in its care. Most of the parents of the children are unemployed and can afford very little in the way of fees, says Mabaso. But the centre will try to find ways to stay open because its services are badly needed in the community, says Mabaso. Three other centres have been built by Santa Shoebox in the Loskop area. They have brand new facilities and meet all the department's requirements, but they have been denied funding, says Debbie Zelezniak, Santa Shoebox Project CEO. The department has never provided a proper reason, says Zelezniak. One of the creches, Qandokuhle Educare Centre, is close to having to shut its doors to its 28 beneficiaries after being in its new building for less than three years. The problem of late payments is widespread throughout Loskop, says Terry Ralph, chairperson of Fundisa Umntwana, a non-profit organisation which assists ECD centres in the Loskop area. Ralph, who is also the manager for the Santa Shoebox construction projects in Loskop, says about 20 centres have either received late payments or been denied funding at the last minute. These ECD centres are allowed to go through the whole process to apply for funding, only to be told the department has no money and cannot accept any more beneficiaries, says Ralph. The department had not responded to GroundUp's questions by the time of publication. This article first appeared on GroundUp. Read the original article here.
IOL News
11-06-2025
- General
- IOL News
Government's lack of political will hinders early childhood development in South Africa
Calling for unity in Early Childhood Development. Front, from left: Hanneli Rupert-Koegelenberg (Inceba Trust), Nicole Biondi (The Wayfinder), Mariza Lubbe (Remgro). Back, from left: Justin Mason (Sectional Title Solutions), Nielen Bekker (Inceba Trust), Prof Eric Atmore (Centre for Early Childhood Development) and Hein Koegelenberg (La Motte). Image: Supplied The most pressing issue facing early childhood development in South Africa is the lack of political will by the government to meet the needs of young children. This was said by prof. Eric Atmore, director of the Centre for Early Childhood Development, on the back of a stakeholder engagement recently held at LaMotte in Franschhoek. Atmore said linked to this is the very low budget allocation for programmes to support young children in their early development, especially for early learning programmes. The engagement, which was hosted by the Inceba Trust, an organisation on a mission "to prepare preschool children in body, mind and soul for a future filled with hope, confidence and courage". Hanneli Rupert-Koegelenberg, founder of the Inceba Trust said their overarching goal is to support Early Childhood Development (ECD) centres to facilitate environments where children can flourish, so they are learning-ready when they reach Grade R. "To achieve this, Inceba Trust and our network of stakeholders run programmes to support ECD centres, caregivers, parents and communities in the Western Cape and Northern Cape provinces of South Africa." Video Player is loading. Play Video Play Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration -:- Loaded : 0% Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. Advertisement Video Player is loading. Play Video Play Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration -:- Loaded : 0% Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. Next Stay Close ✕ Prof. Atmore said 31 years into democracy, and with the right legislation in place and data available there is a lack of action from government to implement the legislation and prioritise early childhood development. "There is more than enough research data to inform optimal action for programmes to meet young children's needs. The 2021 ECD Census provides excellent data upon which government and non-profit organisations can plan their activities. The weakness is that the data is largely ignored when strategies and plans are developed for young children. "We have the legislation in place, government simply does not implement it. Whilst the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child is not legislation, the South Africa government signed both these international documents and yet is not adhering to either. From a legislative perspective, Parliament and citizens must hold the Government of National Unity to account." At the get-together at LaMotte, which sought collaboration to support ECD centres and education, premier of the Western Cape, Alan Winde, said in a video message that through collaboration with various stakeholders, children must be given the best possible start in life to share in the province's prosperity. "Everything we do as the Western Cape Government is aimed at equipping our children with the skills and support they need for success." Rupert-Koegelenberg said Inceba Trust currently supports 201 ECD centres, 1000 staff members and 8293 children in the rural areas of the Western Cape in Franschhoek, Groenheuwel, Kayamandi, Klapmuts, Mbekweni, Paarl East,Wellington, Worcester and the Northern Cape in Ritchie (Kimberley). Prof. Atmore said the training of ECD teachers is critically important but South Africa has no ECD teacher training strategy in place, 31 years after democracy. "Our ECD centres and programmes are minimally supported through the meagre ECD subsidy, which is entirely insufficient. Also, ECD programmes lack appropriate and sufficient education equipment for optimal child development," said prof. Atmore. Speaking at LaMotte Hein Koegelenberg, chief executive officer of LaMotte and Leopard's Leap Wines said in order to raise a generation of skilled and capable adults who play a positive role in communities it has to start and the beginning "ensuring that children are supported during their formative first five years". Prof. Atmore said parents have a critical role to play in the home, at the ECD centre and at ECD programmes. "We must continue to guide parents as to the importance of the earliest years of life for a child's optimaldevelopment."
The Star
08-06-2025
- Business
- The Star
Lack of support for Gauteng ECD centres leaves children vulnerable
The Gauteng Department of Education (GDE) has constantly failed in its mandate to provide effective oversight and support for Early Childhood Development (ECD) centres in line with Section 94 of the Children's Act (2005). A glaring example is the unresolved impasse over the Bantu Bonke ECD Centre in Vereeniging, where more than 100 children have been denied access due to bureaucratic confusion between the GDE and the Department of Social Development regarding the facility's transfer and ownership. The injustice continues; the ECD government subsidy, which was suspended at R17 per child per day since 2019, is set to increase to R24 in 2025. This increment still falls short of the target of R36 per child per day, which experts say would be sufficient to cover the costs of beneficial ECD programmes. Moreover, recent statistics from the 2024 General Household Survey further illustrate the scale of the issue: only 41.1% of children aged 0–4 in Gauteng attend formal Early Childhood Development (ECD) facilities. GDE has spent over R186 million on management fees for ECD logistics from 2019 to 2024, rather than directly benefiting the children. The MEC of Education, Matome Chiloane, failed to provide a basic register of the number of ECD centres that meet the basic infrastructure standards in Gauteng. He was responding to the DA's questions tabled in the Gauteng Provincial Legislature (GPL). These shortcomings have left thousands of children without access to quality early learning, undermining the province's developmental goals and perpetuating educational inequality. The DA Gauteng demands that the GDE prioritise universal access to ECD programmes by ensuring that proper facilities are available to all children, particularly in disadvantaged and impoverished communities. Sergio Dos Santos MPL, DA Gauteng Shadow MEC for Education
